


To Bewitch, Belong, and Behold

by StarryGatorr



Category: Psychonauts (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hostage Situations, Human Collecting, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Magic, Original Character(s), Shrinking, gun - Freeform, look this entire thing is just nuts okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-12 17:24:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20568089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryGatorr/pseuds/StarryGatorr
Summary: Agent Razputin Aquato is returning for his first full summer at Camp Whispering Rock. However a diabolical plot lead by an obsessive collector and his malicious witch cohort will soon disrupt his stay at camp, as well as land him in a strange village of miniscule proportions. His goal now is to free the inhabitants of this tiny town and make a getaway of his own, but is it really that easy when you're trapped in a mansion not built for your size?





	1. To Bewitch

**Author's Note:**

> CLYDE: im back from the dead and with the help of my dearest friend biscuit, have managed to write more then a thousand words. its unbelievable how far we took this thing, but man. On a more serious author note, this entire fanfic was written off a roleplay we did, edited to make it read better, so keep that in mind while reading. have fun yall and stay saucy
> 
> oh btw ao3 user WhiskerBiscuit helped right this, but ao3 wont let me add them so fat L

Antique stores are fascinating places, in his eyes. They hold relics of the past for fairly reasonable (or entirely absurd) prices. What always interested him the most, however, were small items used for doll houses or town sets. Tiny couches and tea sets for homes of delicate porcelain families. Miniscule soldiers peppered across a battlefield, fighting a war that has no end. Railroad tracks that ran across the walls and floors of the room with the most unique of battery powered trains running across them. Antique stores are the perfect locations to find such luxuries. But that was never enough for him. It wasn't... lively enough.

It has been a long and rather unproductive day for Charles. He had a business meeting with shareholders, a charity photo event with some non-profit organization, and other things that mostly had to do with his money and not himself. He is looking forward to going home and unwinding in the best way possible.

It's at his office that his government confidant arrives, giving him updates about the newest changes in all the different branches. Charles listens to most of it without much interest, until the spy tells him about the Psychonauts initiating their youngest member in history, and how it had been done within 3 days of them even knowing he existed. Charles decides this one might be a keeper.

A woman waits outside of Charles’ open doors, eagerly awaiting. Petunia knows he’s got his eyes on a new prize. Otherwise he would have scolded her for the way she eyed the spy, tempted to take him for herself like many others. Once the man was gone she slipped into the office with a bounce to her step.

“Soooo... Do I get a who, a where, and a when? Because I’m as ready as you are, Charlie!”

There’s that pet name of hers. She likes to name anything she considers as hers, or in relation to her. He doesn't correct her about using his real name, another big sign that he has someone he wants. He taps a fancy pen against his mouth and opens his computer, looking up confidential files thanks to the hacker he's employed. After a minute or so, he leans back and turns the monitor around for Petunia to see.

"Razputin Aquato, newest agent of the Psychonauts. Apparently a child prodigy, with a lot of psychic power. This one might be difficult for you, Petunia."

He taps the screen, where it shows an ID photo of the boy with brown hair, green eyes, and wearing unusual headgear. She gasps and holds her cheeks in her hands, lips curling up into a smile. Such determined green eyes, the cool secret agent poise, the unique helmet and goggles. It’s no wonder Charles had taken a liking to him.

“He looks like a perfect fit for the collection! I’ll make sure to come back with him in one piece.”

Then she presses the tips of her pointer fingers together, legs rubbing against each other as she looks up at him with puppy dog eyes.

“Do you think I can take a psychic for myself? Please? They sound so exciting!”

He sighs at her energy. "You know that they're very dangerous, Petunia. The last one I had that could lift things bigger than pebbles almost gave me a scar. This one just happens to be incredibly rare, and thus worth my time. Perhaps I'll let you play with him if you promise not to break him. But you have to bring him back first. Can I trust you with this task?"

“Yes Charlie, yes!”

She throws her hands up in the air and takes off to her room. Up the stairs, down the hall, and into the second floor bedroom that’s all for her. Petunia opens the window and grabs her decorated board. Then, she throws herself through it, plummeting to the ground below.

\-- --

Razputin holds his chin in his hand as he looks out the window of the car. Today was the first day of a new summer at Camp Whispering Rock. Since he wasn’t allowed to be flown in on the fancy psychic jet, he was being driven there by a hired chauffeur that would drop him off. It was invigorating, the sun growing harsher with each passing day and the promise of new adventure. Driving the car is none other than Sasha Nein, a super star agent and one of Raz' former-counselors-turned-current-friends. He glances at Raz through the rearview mirror.

"Do you remember everything I've asked you to memorize, Razputin? About camp policies and responsibilities?"

This is a lesson the boy had unfortunately missed during his first year, due to extraordinary circumstances.

“Don’t worry Agent Nein, I’ve got it.” Something about not lighting squirrels on fire or traversing the lake to enter a dilapidated insane asylum. It wasn’t his fault his girlfriend(?) got kidnapped by a crazy brain-snatching dentist! And the squirrels totally had it coming.

As they approach the summer camp Razputin grows more and more restless. It’s been a year since he was adopted into a psychic-centric government branch as an intern after saving their Grand Head. The one and only, the greatest psi-spy organization of all time, the Psychonauts. Being a fully fledged Psychonaut himself, he technically did not need to go to camp anymore, but last year his attendance was cut short by the aforementioned extraordinary circumstances.

Sasha seems to notice his restlessness, despite not looking at him again. "You have nothing to fear, Razputin. This is more of a formality than anything else, and it will be excellent for the new campers to take inspiration from your story."

He drives through the camp gates and parks in the parking lot. It looks much the same as it did a year ago. The older agent steps out of the car and lights a cigarette.

"I am going to inform the new counselors of our arrival. Can you handle your luggage on your own?"

“Yeah, I can get it.”

It wasn’t like the boy had much. A new leather satchel instead of a backpack and a duffle bag were his only luggage. He didn’t have that many possessions anyways.

That’s when the elder Psychonaut’s words dawn upon him.

“Wait, new counselors?”

"Yes. Usually it is simply Morry, Milla, and I who act as counselors, but as you know, we have been very busy with official business as of late. The camp has been given permission to work with new candidates. This year, we will have two new counselors, both interns. If they do well, there is a good possibility they will be promoted to agents."

The man starts walking in the direction of the main lodge.

"Which is why I want to approach them about your arrival first. I know you and many of the interns have...had difficulties throughout the year."

“You can say that again.”

Having accomplished so much in such a short period of time had really set some of the other interns at the Psychonauts headquarters off, causing them to act aggressive towards him. However camp was more laid back then the government-run Mother Lobe. This would be a much more relaxed experience.

Practically nothing at all has changed. He finds the boys cabin exactly where it was and drops his bags off on the bunk he had claimed last year.

Sasha finds both interns in the main lodge, arguing with Chef Cruller about finishing the burgers faster. Because he knows it's a losing battle, he interrupts the conversation and asks that the two of them join him to visit Razputin in the kid's cabin area. Neither of them have interacted much with Raz beyond the first few days of him being an agent, and Sasha counts his blessings that they appear willing to be amicable towards the young prodigy. The chirpier female intern is quick to discard her battle with Chef Cruller and seek out the famous young Psychonaut in the boy’s lounge. She peeks her head in, blackish-purple pigtails drooping as she tilts her head to the side. For a young adult her age, her features were childish and cute.

“Yoo-hoo! You’re Agent Aquato, aren’t you? I’ve heard so much about you, and I’m a big big fan! Would you mind if I asked you some questions in private?”

Razputin turns to the intern vying for his attention and smiles. His first day here and he’s already being asked to be interviewed.

“Sure, I don’t mind at all.”

“Great! I’ll meet you in the parking lot.”

She skips off to the meeting location and Raz walks out after her, only stopping when he finds Sasha and the other intern counselor approaching.

"Hello," says the second counselor, a little more reserved but still clearly excited to do this job. He blinks at Raz a few times. 

"I know we, um, got off on the wrong foot a few times last year, but I'm ready for a new start. Truce?"

He holds out a hand for Raz to shake. Sasha raises an eyebrow, knowing this intern is probably just trying to show off that he can work with coworkers he resents. Trying to get that agent position even now.

Raz grins and takes the intern’s hand. It was better to have a friend then an enemy, even if his friend may not have the best intentions.

“Truce.”

He shakes his hand before releasing and looking at Sasha.

“I’m going to go to the parking lot for a bit. I’m pretty sure the other counselor wants an autograph.”

Agent Nein has never rolled his eyes before, but the look on his face right now suggests he would do it if he were any other person.

"Very well. I will see you tonight for the first campfire, and formally introduce you to all the campers."

He walks off in the direction of the hollow stump, most likely planning to visit his lab. The intern soon follows, not really wanting to hang out with Raz more than necessary. Razputin returns to the parking lot where he was dropped off, only to find the counselor wasn’t waiting there like she had promised. He scans the area in confusion and is still unable to locate her until he feels some pricking sensation in the back of his neck. He jolts and holds the spot as he turns wildly to face the intern.

“You! What was that? Did you do something?”

She doesn’t answer, only giggling and taking a few steps forward. All of a sudden she’s getting bigger, and bigger, and Raz watches in shock as she grows over 3 times his size. He steps back, bewildered and amazed when he realizes that everything’s gotten bigger. The cars, the trees, the grass, the parking lot.

She hasn’t grown: he‘s shrunk! And now all he measures is a measly foot or so. His eyes trace up her behemoth figure as she bends down and scoops him up with just one hand. Raz kicks his legs and struggles, being held by his torso and arms to ensure he couldn’t leave her grasp.

“What did you do to me?! Who are you?” The far tinier boy cries out. The counselor giggles and opens the napsack hanging off of her hip.

“I’m a witch!”

With that Petunia stuffs him inside and closes the bag. She removes her board from her back and gets a running start before jumping on top of it. Soon enough she’s hovering on it, then flying above the trees and the gates and away from the summer camp. She has her target so there’s no need to mess around any longer in a forest in the middle of summer with a bunch of children. Her guardian was waiting. Miles away and in the sanctity of his own mansion, Charles watches the woodworker make the newest dollhouse. It is a very pretty thing, with plenty of climbing materials along the walls and hanging from the ceilings for entertainment. It's built in a way that the house can be opened down the middle - as all his houses are - and he can watch his newest addition jump from hold to hold if he so desires. He imagines this one will be almost like owning a monkey, or a bird. Much less messy of course, but just as interesting. He looks forward to teaching it tricks.

When she returns to the mansion, Petunia is a bundle of energy and joy. She practically sweeps the doors off their hinges as she literally flies through the hallways.

“I have him! I have him! And you said it would be hard. You’re such a worrywart, Charlie!”

"Better to be cautious than caught off guard," the man replies smoothly. His face and posture haven't changed since she arrived but there's an almost excited tremble in his eyes. He ushers her to follow him into the basement.

The changes have already been made to the display, and the newest house has been set near the edge of the exhibit for easier access to Charles. He hums slightly and turns to a smaller glass enclosure on a raised desk, containing a miniature sleeping bag, an outhouse, and not much else.

"Put him in this one, would you? I must ensure his transition to the larger display goes well."

“You got it!”

She eagerly pulls the young Psychonaut out from her bag and deposits him into the glass enclosure.

“WhoaAh!- Oof!”

Raz lands on his lower back and rubs the spot, closing one eye as the other looks around. The ride to the mansion was quite rough, especially when you were being transported from the inside of the baggage rather than outside.

His face in immediately filled with an expression of wonder and bafflement. He is inside of a small glass jar on a desk, with two enormous figures looking down upon him. One he recognizes, the faux counselor who shrunk him down, and the other was an older and more placated man. He stands and looks between the two.

“Who are you guys? Where am I? And- why am I so small?!”

You shall refer to me as Charles, and this is Petunia. You are one of the few fortunate souls to have been chosen by me. Your size is one you will adjust to in time."

Charles steps close to the desk and leans in to study him, relishing the little details that photos can't recreate. The myriad of emotions. The body language. The way this one's nose scrunches up when he's upset. What an intriguing little thing. Little indeed, and very clearly upset. For the second time in a row his very first day of summer at Camp Whispering Rock was so rudely interrupted. Not only that but these two don’t seem to have the best of intentions. Raz straightens himself out.

“Look, I don’t know what you want from me, but I’m sure we can work something out.”

Petunia sticks her tongue out. “We already have that we want: you! You’re going to join the collection.”

He shakes blinks. “Uh, collection?”

“Yes, collection.” Charlie stands up straight and steps to the side, allowing his newest addition to see the rest of the basement.

The floor is large, and almost completely covered in a miniature town. There are doll houses in one corner, placed in a way that it’s like a suburban street. It leads into another corner which contains a park with actual grass, small plants, and a pond. In a third corner sits a few miniature shops with little signs for things like “general store”, “tailor”, and “furniture” to name a few. The last corner is home to the largest building in the exhibit, a hospital with an open roof for someone much taller to peer inside - or take something out. The entire exhibit is covered in a large see-through dome. It looks like glass, but there’s something different about it. Stronger. Tiny air holes litter the top of the dome, far too high and too small for anyone of Razputin’s new size to crawl through. 

Charles gazes at his creation with obvious pride. Introducing a new specimen to their forever home is one of his favorite aspects of his special pastime. Razputin stares in awe, analyzing the entire miniature world before them. It was hard not to be impressed by the display. Real grass and wood buildings and water for a town of dolls.

Only, they weren’t dolls. As he watches the dome he finds movement and sounds and faces drifting about. It isn’t a set for toys. It’s a village for toy-sized people. And these people were being held hostage in some sort of deranged collection!

“Holy cow.”

"Impressive, I know. All specimens in my exhibit have been specially chosen for their rare traits, backgrounds, and other factors. I currently have 12 in my exhibit, and you will soon be the 13th. How lucky you are."

Charles says this almost in monotone, as if uprooting people's entire lives is nothing more than buying a collector's item to him. It was cruel in contradictory way, the amount of detail and care put into the small world in front of him in order to provide for its inhabitants, but the fact that they’re being held there at all shows a clear lack of empathy for their livelihoods. 

Petunia rocks back on forth on the ball of her heels. “Can’t we just drop him in already? I want to watch him meet the others! I bet they’ll love him too!”

"Patience, Petunia. There is always an adjustment period for my new additions. They have to learn to use their new size first before I can trust them not to break something in the exhibit. Replacing things in there is a hassle."

Charles leans in again to stare at Raz.

"But my, you are an interesting one. What would you say your clothing size is, normally? I have a comparison chart to make outfits that will fit you."

He takes a step back and stares back up at the looming figure with defiance in his eyes.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about me. It’s cool and all but there’s no way I’m sticking around to be a part of your loony Barbie world.”

Petunia grits her teeth and wrinkles her nose at the tiny boy’s words towards her guardian. Charles only looks at him, with the slightest trace of amusement in his gaze.

"Do you think you are the first one to tell me that? Do not fear, Razputin Aquato. All my specimens learn to love their lives here. And if they don't, well." He looks almost fondly at Petunia. "I give them reason to understand why my offer is a good one."

Her expression changes in a flash to one of excitement and she giggles.

“That’s right! You’re so nice Charlie, to me and all your toys!”

Razputin raises an eyebrow. He was curious about the “witch” and her motives, but not enough to meet the fate she may bring upon him. 

“Well, Charlie,” He says in an almost taunting manner, mimicking Petunia’s affectionate tone, “I’m not really used to staying in one place for too long, so I think I will be leaving actually.”

"I see. And how will you be doing that?" The man asks this question as if he is asking about the weather.

“By running past you and your magical assistant.” The boy responds nonchalantly, but with his arms folded.

"Oh of course. Well, why don't you demonstrate that plan right now?"

Charles takes a step back, motioning for Petunia to join him. He watches the tiny boy in the glass jar with an expectant expression.

"Do try not to take too long. My time is important to me."

She stands obediently behind him while Razputin looks around the class jar. This shouldn’t be too hard. He summons his levitation ball underneath him and jumps upward, smacking the metal cap of the jar with a psychic hand. The cap hardly budges. He lands back in the bottom of the jar and examines it. Of course it has to be a screw on cap, of course. But this wasn’t going to stop him. He focuses and summons a telekinetic hand out to screw the lid off. Because of his newfound size, his TK hand is hardly big enough to grip the lid, let alone open it. Raz grumbles and kicks the glass of the jar. This was going nowhere fast.

"Are you perhaps finished now?" Charles asks lightly, examining his fingernails. He isn't even giving Razputin the courtesy of watching him anymore. "We can move onto things more worthy of my down time if you're finished."

Raz rolls his eyes. “Sorry for interrupting your precious time, but I’m trying to escape over here. You’re kind of the reason for this anyways so-“

“Don’t talk to him that way!”

Petunia snaps at the small psychic boy, ready to lunge for the jar and smash it with him in it.

"Easy now," the man holds a hand out in front of her. "Darling, this isn't the first time a specimen has been impolite, and it won't be the last. Razputin is a child as well, and it is to be expected with his underdeveloped mental state."

Razputin frowns at the implications of him having a lesser intelligence because of his age. Petunia however nods and takes Charles’ words to heart, as though he holds endless wisdom.

“Of course. I’m sorry.”

“No need for apologies. Just reflection.” Charles comes up to the glass dome again. “Are we done then?”

Petunia nods in response and looks at the jar holding Razputin, picking it up.

“Hey, watch it!”

He stumbles around as the floor moves with the container. It’s somewhat like being in a moving vehicle. While standing. And a vehicle that is poorly driven.

"Careful, Petunia, careful. I know you're excited but we must be gentle. I don't want unneeded damage to my newest addition." Charles says mildly, not making any move to take the jar from his ward's hands.

“Yes sir!”

She stops shaking the jar around as much and carefully hands it off to the man so he could handle the procedure. Razputin is attempting to psi-blast the glass of the jar, with little to n

Charles takes the jar over to the corner with the dollhouses, and stops at one house that looks very new. It's dark green with red trimmings around the windows, and is two floors.

"This will be your home, Razputin Aquato. May you find it to your liking."


	2. To Belong

Charles opens a part of the glass above the exhibit and turns the jar carefully upside down with his hand on the lid, so that when he unscrews it the boy inside will fall only a few inches onto the front lawn. His movements are quick, precise, and without hesitation. He has clearly done this quite a bit.

Only, he does not fall. Raz is holding on to the sides of the jar with his hands and legs extended and pressing against the sides. The jagged rim of the glass is holding his feet there so he would not slip into the enclosure.

Petunia glowers. “He’s not falling! That’s annoying...”

"Indeed. But I have experienced this before. Petunia, would you be a dear and check in that desk drawer for me? There should be a metal fork I can use to force him loose."

Charles tilts his head at the defiant boy. "That is, if he's determined to stay difficult."

That’s Raz’ cue to not get poked by a metal fork. He releases the sides of the glass and summons a thought balloon and floats gently to the ground. 

His feet touch the larger-than usual but perfectly trimmed grass. For such a small area it was quite large. Which is to say it was small in reality, but large to him. Shrinking analogies and hijinks and what not. He looks back up at the two people towering over him. Charles takes the jar out quickly and shuts the enclosure. "Excellent. That wasn't so hard, was it? Doesn't he fit perfectly in my display, Petunia? What a wonderful addition."

“Mhm, mhm! It looks great, like always!” She smiles radiantly.

Raz sticks his tongue out and waves the two of them off, approaching the two story wooden home. This is where he is expected to stay, but there was no way Raz plans to stick around long. He’s going to break out of here, bring some agents back with him, and bust the other 12 poor souls out of here!

But in the mean time, he explored the small wooden house.

It's built very nicely, in the spitting image of a real suburban home. A living room with miniature furniture and a kitchen with no stove or running water. Although there is a staircase to the upper level of the house, there are also climbing walls and a series of perches leading up to the second floor, almost like bird perches or trapezes. What is he, a monkey? Although the fact that Charles knew to put in climbing equipment in the first place is concerning. How could he know about his acrobatic past? Unless he has a mole in the Psychonauts or a place in the government. Either way it was cause for concern. 

The house isn’t interesting enough to keep Razputin’s attention because he’s flying out the door in a matter of minutes. There are other people to meet, as well as to save. All he had to do was find them. It's clear there are people watching him, but they're hiding in their houses or down the street away from him. It's like encountering Sheegor in the asylum all over again, but this time no one is trying to act intimidating to get him to leave. They just watch him and sometimes look up at the man and his ward, who are both watching the display with rapt attention. It's as if the people here are fearful of making a wrong move with Charles present. He walks down the empty and barren streets, looking in windows in a vain attempt to get a peek at the other people trapped here. It isn’t doing him much good since nobody would come out. Razputin approaches one of the smaller wooden houses and knocks.

“Hello? Anybody home?”

At first nobody answers. Raz tilts his head and tries a second time, calling out. “Hey! I know you’re in there! Would you mind letting me in?”

A pause, and then a click as the door is opened slowly. A man in his mid-thirties or so looks through the slit of the hardly opened door. His face is puffed up with worry, causing him to resemble a frog more than a person. His voice cracks and his response sounds like a croak.

“Who? Who are you? Oh, the new one? I’m not really, uh, today’s not a good day, sorry.”

He tries to close the door but Raz blocks him from doing so.

“Hold on a second! I’m trying to-“

“GwuAaH!” The man cries out.

Charles raises an eyebrow at the interesting reaction. He's always curious as to how his specimens adjust to a new addition, and it's almost amusing to see them try not to harm the new ones so they don't raise his anger. It's...endearing. His attention returns to the scene at hand. The man bearing the amphibious resemblance is not faring Razputin’s visit well.

“I’m sorry!! I-I just can’t today!”

“Calm down! I’m not going to hurt you or anything.”

“I-I know, it’s just...” He sniffles, “The others promised I could take my time greeting the new additions... I need a while to get used to them.” 

“That’s fine, but could you point me to somebody who can help me out of this place?”

His question is answered shortly by the yell of an approaching person.

"Are you kidnapping children again? Huh?! You dick! You absolute piece of garbage!"

It's a middle-aged woman, with dark skin and long braids. She's jogging towards Raz from the direction of the hospital, getting out of breath with all the obscenities she's yelling to Charles above them, who continues to watch in mild amusement. The woman stops yelling when she gets close enough to Raz to give him a sad, caring smile.

"Honey, you're going to be okay. My name is Sharon, and you're going to be alright."

Raz is bemused by the woman’s actions. Well, he isn’t confused about the profanities. If he were of proper age he’d be cussing Charles out all he wanted. However he felt he doesn’t her kindhearted assurances. He is a Psychonaut afterall.

“Thanks. My name’s Raz. Do you know how I can get out of here? Like a vent shaft or a hole in the wall or something?”

She shakes her head and shushes him. "It's nice to meet you Raz, but you can't be talking about things like that. Where are you staying? Is it that new green house right there? Let me make sure you're comfortable there, yeah?"

Raz glances upwards at Charles and Petunia. The witch has her hands and face pressed against the glass, and Charles is commanding her to stop. He switches back to looking at Sharon and nods.

Inside of the house Raz sits on the stairs, not really caring to place himself in a more relaxed sitting spot like on the couch. He kicks his legs as they dangle in the air.

“So, do you know how to escape? I was thinking something Mission Impossible style, lasers and giant whirring fans and all that.”

"I'm afraid not, honey, or we would have done it a long time ago.” She sits down next to him, looking him over for injuries. "And even if there was a way, it's impossible to turn back to our regular size without the witch's help. How are you feeling? Did you get hurt on the trip over here at all?"

“I’m fine,” he shrugs, “But what about the opening at the top? If I built a tower, I could probably get up there. But there’s no playing cards...”

He mumbles the last part, rubbing his chin in thought. There has to be a way out of here, right? Like digging, or explosions, or fire. He has a whole arsenal of psychic powers! Something will worth. Sharon however blinks at him. "Raz honey, you really shouldn't provoke that garbage man on your first day here. He'll be watching you very carefully for signs of trouble. I understand that you want to get out of here but that's not a smart idea right now."

“But I can’t stay here! And neither can you guys!” 

Raz jumps down and lands from his place high up on the stairs. He makes it look easy.

“I have to get back to camp as soon as possible. I missed all of last year’s training so I’m behind everyone else, and if I don’t get back, they’ll probably come looking for me and end up getting shrunk too!”

Sharon stares at him, only understanding about half of what he just said. "Um...sweetie, if you don't mind, why do you think Charlie abducted you? He usually goes after those with what he sees as 'special talents.'"

“Well... I’m not really supposed to say much, but since I’m here I don’t think it’ll be an issue. I work for the Psychonauts as one of their field agents.”

"Oh. I've heard of them! I'm surprised you work for them as one so young!" She looks more impressed than scared about that idea. "It's no wonder he took an interest in you. I'm so very sorry."

“It’s alright. This isn’t my first time breaking out of someplace. Or getting shrunken. But that didn’t really count at the time. At least, I don’t think so?”

Becoming small to fight a game of Waterloo in someone’s brainscape against their mind’s rendition of their great great ancestor, Napoleon Bonaparte, is about his only other time being shrunken down. Though he has also been made larger instead of smaller, like in Lungfishopolis. But those times were in someone’s head, not in real life. This is different.

Razputin is pulled out of his inner monologue when Sharon speaks up again. "Well, I suppose you have a little experience at least. But you really do need to be careful with what you say and do out loud, Raz. Charles doesn't take kindly to disruptions in his sick game."

She climbs up the stairs and then seems to notice the climbing materials and the trapezes. 

"What's all this?"

“A bunch of climbing stuff I guess,” He fails to elaborate on why such commodities would be in his house, turning to face her, “Sure he may not like it, but I’m getting out of here no matter what. Will you help me when I try?”

Sharon breathes out very slowly. "Honey, please promise me you won't try anything within the next week at least. You don't realize how dangerous this could be if he catches you. I want to help you but I don't want to see you get hurt."

“A week?!” He cries. That was a pretty big timestamp for someone like Raz, who wanted to be out of here as quickly as possible. However, her warning sounds sincere and pained, as though she’s said it before to others. His expression becomes a little more somber at the thought of those who have attempted escape, and most likely failed. 

“Alright, I’ll wait. But I promise I’m going to get us out of here.”

"Thank you." She looks like she wants to hug him, but she hangs back since they're technically still strangers. "And you don't have to promise to get us out. I think you'll find it will be more difficult than you think, in both escaping and convincing people to come with you."

“I won’t need to convince them. Once I return with backup, these big jerks are toast! Literally. They’re huge.”

He points a thumb at the door where Charles and Petunia were likely still outside the dome, monitoring them all. Sharon shakes her head again, admiring his bravery and self-assurance but also fearing for his safety because of it.

"Okay, Raz. Would you like to meet the other residents here? They'll be more likely to greet you if you're with me."

“Sounds good to me.”

He follows Sharon out of the house and down the lane towards the plethora of other houses. There are exactly 8 houses in total, with Razputin’s being the newest additions, but some of them appear to be empty. On top of that one of the more rustic houses with what appears to be a barn is farther than the rest, past a man-made hill. She stops in front of a simple white house and knocks on the door.

"I'm back! I've brought our newest resident with me and I want you to meet him!"

A fair looking teenage girl with soft hair and even softer eyes opens the door and gasps. Her voice is petite and somewhat strained.

“Oh, he’s so young... I’m sure Wallace will be happy. My name is Isabella, but please call me Bella. I’m so sorry you’re trapped here.”

“It’s fine. I’m going to-“ He remembers that their captors are watching. “... Not, escape. You know, stuck in a dome and all.”

Bella is puzzled by his strange introduction but let’s him in anyways, along with Sharon.

"Thank you Bella." Sharon gives her a quick hug as they walk in. "Wallace! Come out and meet our guest!"

From down the hall someone calls out, and a boy not much younger than Raz comes bounding around the corner into the living room. His eyes widen when he sees Raz.

"Whoa, you're like my age! That's never happened before!"

“Hey! I’m Raz.” He extends a gloved hand in greeting to Wallace and shakes the other boy’s hand.

"Hi Raz! I'm Wallace. Um, it's nice to meet you but I can't really say it's a good thing you're here, ahaha..." He trails off with a bit of nervous laughter, rubbing the back of his head.

“Don’t worry about it.” He waves it off. They’re all in the same situation anyways, so there’s no point in apologizing.

Bella stands besides Sharon and leans in to whisper to her. The worry is practically dripping from her quivering voice.

“What are we going to do?... It has to have been only a year since Wallace got dropped, and now that… that man... has come back with another child?... Wh-What does it mean?”

Sharon sighs and closes her eyes. "I don't know what it means, but it's nothing good. He's getting bolder. I'm sorry, Bella. I promise I'll keep the three of you as safe as I can."

“I can’t... I don’t want anyone else to be imprisoned here...” She lets out a shaky breath as she attempts to compose herself before the kids notice. She is on the brink of tears.

The doctor places a gentle hand on her back. "Breathe, Bella, slow breaths. We take it one day at a time, okay?"

Wallace glances at the panicking girl, seeing how she's barely keeping it together.

"Um, why don't I show you my room?"

Raz doesn’t need to look at Bella to know why Wally wants to leave, let alone hear. Her thoughts are so loud and sorrowful that it’s kind of putting him on edge.

“Sure, lead the way.”

The boy leads him farther into the house. It's only one story, so they reach his room very soon. He fidgets a moment before opening the door.

"Um, a lot of the stuff in here isn't really...my thing so...please don't judge me?"

He opens the door, revealing a room filled with miniatures of movie merchandise, all featuring Wallace in some way. There are posters with his face and name plastered everywhere. There are action figures, bobble heads, keychains, and everything else one would expect from movie marketing. The only thing that's really different is the bed, which has a space blanket and pillows, and underneath the bed there are some basic stuffed animals and books.

The boy looks sheepish and won't make eye contact with Raz.

“Whoaaa! This is so cool! Are you an actor or something?”

He steps inside and marvels at the various posters and items. Movies, TV shows, informative postings- it seems like Wallace was the star of many pieces. Raz briefly wonders if he could aspire to this level of fame as a Psychonaut. Maybe he could appear in True Psychic Tales for once and even get his own chapter?...

"Yeah I am!” Wallace replies proudly, “Or, well, I used to be. I can't really do anything anymore except when Charles wants me to."

The boy rocks on his feet, still not looking at Raz. He has a small blush on his face though.

"Are you a child actor too? Is that why Charles wanted you?"

“Nah. Unless you count doing flips and jumps in a dingy circus as acting. I’m a Psychonaut. Have you heard of them?”

“No. Is that the name of your circus? Is that why he wanted you?"

“No, they’re a group of psychic super spies. My circus is run by me and my family. I don’t know why that guy would want me sitting in some dollhouse though. It sounds boring, for all of us.”

Sure he’s got an interesting background, but the boy fails to see the reasoning behind being kept in a glass dome with a bunch of other strangers.

"Wow! So you're like James Bond then? That's so awesome!" Wallace steps closer to Raz with stars in his eyes. "I can only act like a spy, I'm not a real one like you! You're so cool!"

He's got a giant smile on his face, looking at Raz like he's his new hero.

“Heh. I gotta admit, it’s pretty cool. You get to fly in jets and go in people’s minds and fight their inner demons!” He puts his hands on his hips in a display of pure epicness. Being a Psychonaut totally was amazing and everyone agrees. Most people. Probably. But the people who don’t are wrong anyways.

"Yeah!" The boy mimics kicking and punching motions and giggles. Then he stops moving and looks at Raz, disturbed. 

"Maybe Charles wants you to be his new spy. To kidnap people."

The thought was unsettling, but Raz isn’t afflicted.

“There’s no way I’d be a spy for that guy. I’d just become invisible and run away. You can’t find someone who’s small and you can’t see.”

"You can turn invisible?!" Wallace practically screeches. "Can you do it right now?!"

“Yeah! Watch this. Well, there isn’t much to watch but you get the idea.”

He shrugs and, just like that, Raz vanishes from view.

"THAT'S SO COOL!" This time it is a shriek, and Wallace turns around in a circle, trying to see if Raz has moved and if he can see him.

"Where are you?! Can you do it forever?"

“I can’t do it forever, “His voice ring out from behind Wallace, moving to his right as he walks around him, “I used to only be able to hold it for a few seconds, but I’ve gotten a lot better since then. I can probably stay invisible for over a minute now!”

With that Razputin appears back into view in front of Wallace.

"Wow!" Wallace doesn't even flinch at Raz' voice behind him. "Do you think I could learn how to do that, or is it only for spies?"  
“I don’t know... It’s not like you need to be a spy to do it, but you have to be a psychic. I’ve been one since birth, so it’s not that hard for me.” Some people have been known to randomly develop powers out of nowhere, others simply never realize their potential. It’s different for everyone.

"Oh...I don't know if I can then. But maybe someday! Will you teach me if I become a psychic?" He looks at Raz hopefully.

“I can try.”

He’s never taught somebody how to use psychic powers before. It can’t be that difficult can it? Razputin had the basics of every psi powers he could get ahold of once he had the merit badges for them. This should be the same!

However before he has the chance to begin explaining even the basics of being a psychic, Bella is calling for them.

“Raz!... Could you come here? And bring Wallace.”

"Awesome! And I can teach you any acting stuff, if you'd like." He grins, then turns at the sound of Bella's voice. "Oh, we better go see what Bella wants. Come on!"

He runs out of the room, pulling Raz' wrist with him.

“Woah-“

They’re out of the room and down the hall in a matter of seconds. Two new people have just arrived, a pair of girls who look incredibly similar, and sinister. One has her hair loose and draping over her shoulders while the other is wearing a bonnet over her head. The teen girl with the bonnet bows her head and speaks.

“Good day to you. You’re the fresh arrival, aren’t you? I’m Abby, and this is my sister Sarah.” Abby jabs her twin sister in the arm as a cue for her to introduce herself.

She jabs her sister back and rolls her eyes. "I can introduce myself, sister dearest," She remarks sarcastically at her sister. Sarah’s nose wrinkles as she eyes Razputin up and down. "You're really young."

“Thanks?” It wasn’t like he was that young- in fact, he had turned 11 a few months ago! Besides, Wallace had to be younger than him, so it wasn’t like there weren’t children in this place. “I’m Raz.”

Wallace crosses his arms and glares at the twins. The naughty one treats him like he's a little kid, and the "nice" one acts like his acting talents are useless.

"What are you guys doing here?"

“Why, saying hi to our newest neighbor of course. Tell me, Raz, what brings you here?”

Abby laces her finger together and holds them in front of her chest. Razputin looks between the two sisters.

“A flying witch.”

Her smile drops a bit. “No, I mean, what purpose do you have here?”

“Beats me. I got kidnapped from summer camp and dumped in here.”

Sarah looks him over. "A wise one, are you? Just what we needed. I wonder how long Charlie will let you badmouth his other inhabitants."

Wallace shifts uncomfortably. "Hey, don't joke about that."

Abby waggles her fingers at him menacingly. "It's not a joke. I heard he'll sew your mouth shut if you don't be quiet."

“Nuh huh. He stuffs you full of cotton through your mouth so you can’t speak anymore.” Sarah waves the same finger at Wallace.

Raz shudders. “Trust me, I’m not trying to get my mouth sewn shut or stuffed with cotton.”

“Then you should mind your manners,” Abby scowls.

Wallace is looking green at the details of this conversation, and he looks at Raz like the older boy might be able to stop it. However Razputin has no intention of backing down from this endeavor, so Bella has to be the one to step in.

“Abby, Sarah, please, it’s Raz’s first day here... He isn’t causing any trouble.”

“He may not be causing any trouble now, but just you wait. We’ll bring him to mother. She knows who has compacted with the Devil, just with one glance. You’ll see.” Abby grabs the fabric of her long black dress and is out the door without another word. Sarah follows afterwards, holding her fingers to her grin, pretending to sew her lips shut. Wallace shudders.

"I don't like them very much."

“Me neither.”

Raz looks back at Bella and Sharon. The teen girl is struggling to cope with the previous hostile encounter and it being comforted by Sharon. Bella looks up at Raz and speaks nervously.

“You need to watch out for those two. They- they’ve done awful things.”

"That's enough about that," Sharon says firmly. "It's almost dinnertime, so we need to be present in the park. Come on, we don't want to be late."

Raz perks up. That’s right, how does Charles feed the people here anyways? Does he prepare tiny little meals? Or does he give them a single fruit or something that’s normal sized and they just eat at it for a day or something? He follows the three other inhabitants out of the house and towards the park where everybody is gathering. In total, 12 people arrive. Even the frog looking man is there.

An androgynous figure in an artist’s smock groans. “Is Gold really not here again? I’m going to take his share of food if he doesn’t show up this time!”

A woman standing with a man, an older teen boy, and the two twin sisters from before humbles the other person, “We cannot simply let him starve. That may be what he wants. I’ll bring him his meal.”

Wallace takes Raz' hand and stands next to him, trying to stay out of sight of the twins and their mother. It's then that above them, Charles' face appears. He's holding a plate but it's too high in the air to tell what it is.

"Hello. Dinner has been prepared, and I see that...." He trails off, counting the number of people there. "Ah, we are still missing one. Could someone perhaps bring him here? I'd rather he not miss his meal."

The person who complained before groans again while the lady with the twins runs off to get this ‘Gold’ person. Abby points to Wallace and whispers to her sister, giggling. Raz is a little bewildered when he feels Wallace’s fingers curl around his hand, but when he looks up to find the bratty teen twins pointing their way it becomes clear why.

“Hey, don’t worry about them. They’re all talk.”

“No they’re not. They got someone taken to the witch and she never came back. It wasn’t even her fault! I don’t want to end up with the witch!” Wallace whispers all of this as if he’s sharing a taboo, and he’ll be punished just for mentioning it.

“Well there’s no way I’m going to let that happen, alright?” Those girls definitely spell out trouble, but Razputin was a master of getting himself out of trouble. And into it. Let’s not sweat the details.

Very soon, the mother comes back with Gold - an older man with a sad, sad face who looks like he’s given up a long time ago. Petunia giggles and shakes Charles’ shoulder lightly.

“They’re here, they’re all here. That means dinner is served!”

Wallace doesn't say anything, but he gives Raz a hesitant smile. Above them, Charles nods and gently takes Petunia's hand off his shoulder.

"Good evening, my specimens. Dinner tonight is fully prepared, as you have a new member in my lovely world. I've made roast chicken, salad, garlic bread, and there will be an optional dessert of sherbet."

He opens a hatch at the top of the dome and lowers the large plate into the park area, where all the foods he's listed are clearly there. There are several large portions of each, more than enough to feed everyone in the exhibit.

“He can do that?...” Razputin mutters, considering the logistics of shrinking down food. Or maybe he has a tiny chef somewhere that makes it? But wouldn’t he need shrunken ingredients?

“Woo hoo!” His thoughts are interrupted by the artist running over to the feast before them. Other join slowly, dragging themselves forward. Some take their food to their homes, others stay and chat while they eat.

"Come on, Raz! We're gonna miss the good stuff!" Wallace starts tugging for him to follow him to the plate. "It's really rare that Charles makes food for us! Come on!"

“I’m coming.” He walks behind Wallace and the others and takes his dinner. Normally he’d reject eating in a situation like this, but he promised Sharon to wait for a week before attempting to break out, and going without food for a week is just impossible.

Abby and Sarah and their family are gone already, making dinner for him and Wallace much less stressful. However two people off in the corner appear to be arguing; the artist and a painfully normal looking man. Sharon sighs.

“They’re at it again... I have no idea why those two are friends.”

"For the last time, I'm not sending you on a psychedelic trip so you can make art! I can't even do that in the first place!" The normal-looking man says, exasperated. He doesn't even notice Razputin or Wallace staring at him.

“But I need it! It’s so boring here, and you’re the only one with those weird psychedelic powers man!”

Psychedelic powers? Razputin’s head moves upwards and he stands up, walking over to the two. “Is there a problem here?”

The artist begging with the normal man looks at him. “Oh, you’re the new kid right? I’m Abor. If you’ve got any prophetic dreams or insane visions, I’m all ears.”

"Don't listen to Abor. They'd take LSD if they thought it would help their 'artistic inspiration'." The man rolls his eyes and makes finger quotes. Then he sticks out a hand to Raz. "I'm Tom, by the way. Sorry you got stuck in this shitty deal like the rest of us."

Abor frowns with all their teeth. “Are you really gonna jack my vibes? The little man doesn’t need to know that stuff.”

"I'll jack your vibes until you leave kids out of your delusional fantasies, buddy."

Razputin has no idea what an LSD is, but presumably it’s nothing pleasant. He takes Tom’s hand and shakes it.

“I’m Raz. I heard you guys talking about psychedelic powers?”

“Oh yeah. Tom here’s got some major brainwave magic going on with him.”

Tom smiles at Raz, then it turns into a grimace when they start talking about his powers.

"Ah, yeah, it's nothing really special. I'm a psychic, but all I can really do is telepathy. Nothing like those big government guys."

“You’re a psychic too?” Raz grins and points a thumb at himself, “I actually work for the Psychonauts. Agent Aquato, field agent.”

Tom whistles, impressed. "Wow kid, that's amazing!" 

Abor’s eyes widen. “Seriously?! Dude, talk about good luck! So can you help me out? I need inspiration for my art pieces... I’m not big on landscapes, and even then, we don’t have a lot of space around here that’s pretty for me to paint.”

He gives Abor a dirty look. "Just ignore them, they pretend to be a starving artist but they're just bored."

He suddenly looks up nervously, because Charles is watching them intently. "Hey, uh, if you guys are done with dinner, maybe we can talk about this somewhere else? Just a suggestion."

Raz nods and all three of them relocate. Abor refuses to be left out so they suggest they discuss in their house. Inside, they are immediately bombarded with colors and shapes and everything in between. It’s a one floor flat with a large center space for laying out tarps and canvases and whatnot.

“Wow. This place sure is uhh...”

“I know. I’ve been here for a couple of years now, with all the time and supplies I need. It’s heaven for a revolutionary painter like me. Charles has even taken some of my better works and used his clout to slip them into museums!”

Tom closes his eyes and looks like he'd rather be anywhere else while his friend brags about their pad. It's one thing to be proud of your art; it's a whole other thing to put your kidnapper on a pedestal in front of other kidnapped people, especially children.

Wallace shakes his head. "How do you know he put them in museums? I bet he just hung them up in his mansion ‘cause he didn't want to share."

“Good enough for me. That just means he’s got tons of snobby elites visiting his house, looking at my work,” Abor chuckles, caught up a daydream of their own.

Raz rubs his nose awkwardly.

“Yeah it’s uh, pretty cool. Hey, do either of you know a way out of here? Or maybe a weakness in the dome?”

Tom stiffens immediately, and Wallace grips Raz' hand tightly. "Kid, trust me, you don't want to go down that path. I understand you don't want to be here, none of us do - well," he glances as Abor, "most of us, but trust me when I say you don't want to poke that hornet's nest."

Abor’s eyes narrow at Tom, but Razputin doesn’t seem deterred.

“I get it’s dangerous and all, but I’m trained for these kinds of things. Besides, don’t you guys want to escape too?”

The artist scratches their forehead. “Welllll... I think I’m better off here than anywhere else... But it does suck that the rest of you all are trapped here.”

Wallace tugs on Raz' arm to get his attention, "Raz, please don't try anything! I don't want you to get hurt! If you try to escape Charles will get angry and I won't ever see you again!"

Tom shakes his head. "Wally's right, kid. You don't realize how dangerous even talking about this is."

CRaz frowns. Everyone keeps warning him about the dangers, but he’s well aware that if he tries to escape his life with be on the line. His only other option would be to sit here and wait for someone to notice he’s missing, but what good will that do? They’ll barge into this mansion unaware of the horrifying potential held by Petunia and her magic. 

“Fine,” He succumbs, “I won’t ask about it anymore. Sorry if I’m putting you guys in danger.”

Abor shrugs. “It’s fine. As scary as Charles is, he won’t go to any extremes unless he really has to. The guy does think we’re valuable. In... his own way.”

"Unfortunately," Tom shudders. "But once he decides we're not, it's best to be on your best behavior."

“Got it. Anyone else I should meet around here?”

Abor taps their chin. “I’d stay away from the Putnams. They’re the farm folk. They freaked out when they found out about Tom’s weird mutant powers.”

"Yeah, they might try to 'pray your devilry away', so be careful about what you do around them." Tom smiles at Raz. "But if you're ever up for it, I'd love to see what you can do! It's always great to meet another psychic! Even if I can't do much besides telepathy."

“Don’t talk to the creepy farmer people and come back to show off my skills. Noted. Thanks!” Raz turns to the door and is off, tugging Wallace along with him back into the town square.

“Where are we going?" Wallace follows him, confused.

“I dunno. I thought you could tell me who we should visit next.” Getting on the good side of the residents here was, at the moment, top priority. Purely because Razputin has little else to do.

"Um, well, have you met Lucas yet? Or Henry?"

“No. Who are they?” He pauses to let go of Wallace’s hand and stare at him curiously.

"Well, Lucas does a lot of cool things with plants, and he's the reason we can still grow stuff in here even though the plants are all small too. He's really nice! But he's kinda weird, so you just gotta get used to him. And um, Henry is the old guy who didn't show up to dinner at first. He's not....doing so well. Sharon said it's depression and that we need to be nice to him."

Raz isn’t sure he saw any botanists, but it‘s hard to forget Mr. Gold and that sorrowful expression he carried to dinner. 

“If he’s not feeling good we should probably leave him alone. Which house is Lucas’?”

Wallace points down the street, to the exact house Razputin had first tried before he'd met Sharon. "He lives in that one. Wanna see if he's home?"

That would mean Lucas is the frog looking man who shooed him away earlier. “I don’t know... I tried asking him where I was when I first got here, but he kind of freaked out. Does he hate me or something?”

"No, he's just like that. He's not very good at talking to people so he thinks he shouldn't be the first one to greet someone new. It's like this weird superstition he has. But he should be fine now!"

“If you say so.”

The two of them venture forward to the first house of the village and knock. Sure enough, Lucas opens the door and gasps.

“O-Oh! It’s you! And Wallace? What are you two doing here?”

"Raz wants to meet you of course!" Wallace pushes Razputin forward a bit and holds the door so Lucas can't change his mind and close it on them.

“Oh...” Lucas grimaces a little at the fact that he has little to no option of backing out. “W-Well, if you really want to then you both can come on in.”

He opens the door fully and allows the two boys inside. Lucas’ home has two stories like Razputin, but his is much different. His bottom floor has normal furnishing while the top floor is mostly made of glass and open so that the many, many plants it holds can be watered and gain light. Even then the bottom floor holds many pots and plants of its own.

“Neat,” Raz remarks idly. Wallace giggles at the boredom in Raz' voice and walks farther into the house to look at the plants, hoping that will push the other two into talking more. He's used this technique before, and it hasn't failed him yet. Lucas watches as Wallace drifts away. However he fails to pick up the initiative and stands still, twiddling his thumbs. Razputin takes another look around before turning to Lucas.

“So, you work with plants?”

“Hm? Y-yes! I love them with all my heart. I’m lucky most of them grow in an environment like this, even when shrunken down.”

“About that... how do things get shrunken around here? Us, the houses, the food, the plants- everything.”

“Actually...” Lucas crones, “The houses are all hand made. As bizarre as that witch’s powers are, I doubt she can shrink and entire building. But for the plants and the people here, I’ve caught a glimpse of her using a weird glowing dart...”

“Dart?” That would explain the stinging sensation Razputin felt in the back of his neck when he was first shrunk at camp. He had received one of Petunia’s special shrinking darts there.

"Yeah, it really sucked!" Wallace calls out from the other side of the room, barely visible behind rubber tree leaves. "She thought it was really funny when she did it to me and I dropped the script I had been reading."

“Wallace, p-please don’t mess around with those!” Lucas frets.

Raz simply hums in thought. Magic darts that disappear once they hit something, shrinking them down. It sounds absurd, but it’s not like he hasn’t seen weirder. Much weirder in fact.

“Do you think she can unshrink things?”

“Oh, I know she can. Have you met Abor yet?” Raz nods. “Well, one time Charles was put in a sticky situation where someone wanted to meet the painter of one of Abor’s pieces, and he had no choice but to unshrink them for the interview,” he scoffs, face becoming sour, “If only they had actually tried to tell the outside world about what’s going on here. They’re such a boot kisser for Charles, just like that eerie witch of his.”

"If you tell the witch that, she thinks it's a compliment. She's so weird." Wallace leaves the rubber tree and starts playing with the long stalks of a spider monkey plant. "But she's also really, really scary. You don't want to make her mad. You don't want to make either of them mad. Please don't try to make them mad, Raz. Please don't try to escape!"

“Wallace, please...” Lucas whimpers as his oh-so-precious plants are manhandled.

“You don’t need to worry about me Wally. I’ve gotten out of way more dangerous situations,” Raz boasts. A little (or, rather, extremely large) witch wasn’t going to scare him that easily.

IT: Wallace stops messing with the plants, but only because he's alarmed by Raz' confidence. Yeah, it's really cool for another kid to be strong and smart like that, but he's seen what happens to the people who disobey. Most of them don't come back. Two did, but were never the same again, and didn't last much longer anyway before Charles got bored of them. "Ah, o-okay Raz. If you say so..."

“You’ve definitely got some guts kid...” The rotund man utters lowly, both impressed and concerned for the young Psychonaut’s fate.

“Thanks! Anyways, I think we’ll go now.” 

Lucas lets out an auditory sigh of relief when Raz says that.

“Good... It was nice meeting you, Raz,” He smiles feebly and walks the two out of his house, shutting the door the moment they’re outside. A click can be heard from the door being locked.

"See? I told you Lucas is okay, just a little weird. He likes plants more than people but he's trying, I think. Did you want to meet Henry? Or we could do something else if you want,” Wallace looks down at his shoes, hoping that whatever Raz chooses to do, he'll want him to join him.

The lights in the basement were growing dimmer by the second, replicating the effect of night falling. While the park and town itself had working lamps, the houses were without electricity and everything would be dark soon.

“I think I’m going to go hit the sack actually.”

"Oh, um okay! You have your own house and I bet it's really cool, especially since it's so big." The boy looks down the street at the green house. "Um, but if you want, you can stay with me and Sharon. Bella stays over too sometimes. I don't know if we have a spare room but Sharon could figure something out! Promise!"

“Are you sure it’s alright? I mean, we all have our own houses.” Everyone except for the Putnams had a house for each person, and that alone was enough to accommodate more than the 13 residents currently living in the dome.

"Oh yeah, a lot of people do sleepovers and stuff with each other. It makes it...easier, you know? With bad dreams sometimes." He rubs the back of his neck. "I've been living with Sharon so long that Charles moved all my stuff from my house to that room. That's why, um, all the movie stuff of me is in there. It's kinda weird. Charles won't mind though, he likes seeing what we do with each other."

“So it’s more of a bonding thing?” He contemplates what Wallace says for a second before smiling and nodding. “Then sure, I wouldn’t mind staying over for the night.”

"Awesome! I'll go tell Sharon, and then we'll help you get stuff from your house! You know, blankets and stuff. This is gonna be so much fun!" Wallace jumps up and down a few times before running off.

Razputin chuckles as the white haired boy runs off towards the equally white painted house from before. He goes to his own dark green house to get some of his stuff and thanks the other two as they help relocate his necessities for the night.

“So, where should I sleep?”

"You can take my room for now," Sharon says, carrying two giant fluffy pillows. "I've already moved my bedding to the living room couch so we're good to go."

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t mind sleeping on the couch.” He has slept on an uncomfortable bunk bed in a summer camp and a cramped bed in an old caravan. A couch would be considered an upgrade.

"No sweetie, you're a guest! I'm not letting guests stay on the couch. Especially not children..." She mutters the last part, still angry at Charles for what he's done.

“If you say so,” He recognizes that there isn’t any point in arguing, so Razputin takes Sharon’s generous offer and goes into her room. It is quite average looking, but also a little messy with clothes strewn about. Some of them aren’t even completed clothing items, missing sleeves or buttons or other necessities. 

He throws himself onto the bed without bothering to cover himself with the sheets and finds himself drifting into sleep in a matter of minutes.

Having turned off the basement lights, Charles approaches his exhibit one last time to see if any of his specimens are still in the streets. He's pleased with how well the new addition has integrated with the others, and he looks forward to seeing more interactions in the coming days. He also makes a note to keep an eye on Razputin's sleeping habits, and whether it'd be prudent to add another room to Sharon's house. Such a lovely little world.

\-- --

The next morning Razputin is the last one to wake, but the first one out of the house. He gives Sharon a quick “thank you” for allowing her to use her bed and a “good morning” to Wallace before he’s out the door and back on to the streets. Bella watches as he passes by and blinks. She opens the door to the house and looks at Sharon.

“Isn’t he... going to wait for us?”

"Apparently not," Sharon says, watching him leave through the window. "I wouldn't worry too much. He hasn't seen most of the town yet, and I asked him not to try anything that could make Charles angry for at least a week. By that point I'm hoping he'll understand how dangerous an escape attempt would be for him."

“I certainly hope he doesn’t try anything dangerous...”

Razputin arrives in the village square and places himself on to one of the few benches surrounding the area. He’s already met the people in town, now after breakfast it was time to explore the dome in its entirety. An adventure to get himself familiar with his surroundings, become familiar with his new temporary-forever home. Down the street, a young adult sits on a building step, eating an apple he'd gotten from the botanist. He watches Raz, curious about him but feeling too lazy to get up and walk over to introduce himself.

Raz is quick to take notice of the man and hop off of the bench. He approaches with some caution, purely because he was somebody he had seen lurking with the twins, and therefore related to the Putnam family. Presumably he is the eldest son.

“You got food? Already?”

"Yeah, Lucas let me have one. He figured out how to grow an apple tree in his backyard." The guy studies Raz. "So you're the new kid, huh? What's your name, and why would Charles want someone like you?"

“My name’s Raz, and I’m a psychic. I’m not sure why he’d want me here. Or anyone for that matter.” The man’s obsession with collecting tiny, living people and giving them a place to live was beyond Razputin’s comprehension. Besides, it was plain creepy.

"Tell me about it. That man is a psychopath. I'm so tired of being here." The young man takes another bite of his apple. "I'm Digger, by the way. Digger Putnam."

“Nice to meet you.” Raz glances at the top of the dome. Neither Charles nor Petunia have arrived yet. “If you don’t want to be here, would you mind telling me how I could get out?”

Digger pauses in chewing the apple, staring at Raz. "You're really gonna try to leave? Hasn't Sharon told you that's a bad idea yet? I saw the way she nabbed you real quick yesterday."

“Yeah, but I’ve handled worse.” Razputin shrugs, “Besides, there’s no way I’m staying here. I need to get out as soon as I can.”

"Well, don't say the whole town didn't warn you." He points to the hospital. "There's a really obvious hole in the glass just above the open roof there, so Charles can take someone out if they're really sick or something. Dunno how you'd expect to reach it, or even open it, but that's the only place I've been able to see so far. Except the one at the very top, but there's no way to get to that one."

Raz turns to the hospital and notices the latch in the glass ceiling where it could be opened. It isn’t as high as he may like it, but with an extra boost he’s sure he could jump up there with his levitation ball. The real question was, how to get the latch open? That one he would have to sit on for a bit.

“Thanks for the tip.”

Others begin to steadily trickle into the town square, and Petunia arrives before Charles does in the basement, carrying a plate with today’s breakfast.

"Your funeral, man." Digger stands up, brushes his pants off, and starts walking towards the park. "Don't wanna miss breakfast."

Raz follows. Once again, 12 people in total arrive in the park for their meal to be served. Abor groans.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. I know the old guy’s bummed out, but isn’t he at least going to eat?”

Lucas huffs, “He’s going through a rough time. Henry’s been here longer than any of us, and I’m sure he’s not taking the news of a new arrival well. Besides, not all of us want to be here you know.”

Abor growls.

"I'll get him this time," Tom says quietly, hoping to avoid a disturbance. He waves at Petunia to get her attention and makes a motion indicating he's going to get Henry. The witch counts the heads of those present and runs off to fetch Charles. It isn’t something that needs complaining or warning about, she just knows how much he loves to be there for feeding time.

Raz watches as Tom runs off to the large 2 story house. This Henry guy certainly sounded like a downer, but rightfully so. Lucas mentioned him being here the longest, and he isn’t sure how long the people here have been. A while is all he can guess. Charles soon comes down, following Petunia at a leisurely pace. He lets her hold the plate before he addresses his people.

"Good morning, everyone. Breakfast today is oatmeal with various chopped fruits. May you find it to your liking."

The food is served and a few people disperse, mainly the Putmans, Lucas, and Abor. Raz takes his food and finds a place with Sharon, Bella, and Wallace.

Bella smiles warmly. “Oh, Raz! I’m glad you’re joining us. Was there anything else you wanted to do today?”

“Yeah,” He replies, taking a bite of oatmeal, “I’m going to explore for the rest of the day. I want to get to know this place better.”

"Ooh, can I come? I know this place like I've memorized a script!" Wallace says between mouthfuls of food. 

"Don't talk with your mouth full, please." Sharon lightly scolds him.

Raz makes sure to swallow his food before he speaks. “Sure thing.”

He finishes his food before anybody else, leaving the spoon and bowl in a bin to be collected and making sure he was all geared up to go. Goggles? Check. Helmet? Check. Backpack? 

Oh, yeah. He left that at camp. Isn’t that a shame?

Wallace finishes as fast as he can and runs to catch up with Raz. "So where do you want to go first?"

“I wanted to go check out the other buildings.” He remembers seeing four buildings before being dropped into the habitat; the general store, the tailor, the hospital, and the furniture store. It was possible one of them could hold something that would provide a means of escape.

"I think Henry is already in his shop, you want to meet him now?" Wallace points at the tailor's shop.

“Sure, lets go.”

He travels up the hill to the commercial part of town. Whether money could be exchanged for goods or services in such a closed off environment was questionable, but Raz will be finding out soon enough.

The two boys enter the tailor shop.

Henry is behind the counter, working carefully on a long dress that most likely belongs to Mrs. Putnam. He looks up as the door opens. "Ah. I was wondering when I'd meet you."

“Hello sir. My name is Raz.”

He steps carefully over discarded fabrics and jars of buttons and other sewing materials as he makes his way to the counter. The man is older than anyone else here, and his eyes are dark. He stares at Raz with the expression of a man haunted by many demons. "My name is Henry. I'm very sorry to have met you this way, son."

“It’s alright. You shouldn’t worry about me.”

This was clearly a man who was troubled by his stay in this place, as well as those who are brought here. Raz was going to break out, he was certain of it, so Henry has no cause for concern in his mind.

"I worry about everything, Raz." Henry goes back to working on the dress.

At Raz' side, Wallace shuffles his feet. He leans in to whisper to the older boy.

"Okay, you met him. Wanna go now?"

“Yeah, we probably should.”

The two of them step out of the tailor shop, with Raz letting out a small sigh of relief.

“Jeez, talk about grim huh? Let’s try the general store next.”

Before Wallace can get a word in he’s already through the door and inside the shop. No one is manning the store, but there are various items on the shelves - mostly for house or furniture repairs. Most notable is the back, which is lined with gardening tools and equipment. It seems like money isn’t really needed here. Still, all of these could be of some use. A tower of furniture would work in his quest to reaching the hole over the hospital, and his telekinesis would make it twice as easy to do so. However the issue of opening the latch remains. Raz finds himself so lost in the contemplation of his escape plan that he doesn’t notice Wallace come up behind him.

"Are you looking for something? I could help you find what you need. Is there something wrong with your house?" The boy asks right behind him.

He jumps slightly and whips himself around to face Wallace.

“Uh, no, it’s fine. I was just thinking about how all this stuff got here is all,” Raz plays it off coolly, stepping around Wallace and back towards the entrance. “Let’s check out the furniture place.”

"Okay...?" The boy is confused by Raz' reaction, but he loyally follows Raz out the door. "Charles has the stuff custom made. Did you know there are people who make miniature stuff with real things and everything? I think that's where he gets it, cause it's not weird for rich people like him."

Wallace pauses to laugh a little nervously.

"Well, the mini people is weird."

“Definitely weird.”

Raz has not been aware that creating tiny versions of common items was a hobby, but one look into the furniture store confirmed this to be true. Couches and beds and tea seats and anything one may want to furnish their home with. He whistles as he walks around the building.

“There’s a lot of stuff here... I bet it took forever just to get it all in.”

"I guess so. It was all here already when I came the first time." Wallace sits down on one of the couches and watches Raz. "You want anything?"

He investigates a little bit more before placing himself next to Wallace on the couch. “No, I think I’m good. I already have some stuff at my house, as well as all that climbing stuff.”

Between the furniture shop and the general store, there is more than enough in terms of bulky items for him to stack up in the hospital.

"Yeah, all the stuff here is way too old-fashioned anyway." Wallace bounces a little in his seat, sticking his tongue out at the rest of the store. "Hey, what's your house like, anyway? Is it like mine, where it's just filled with merchandise of you?"

“Oh, I don’t have a house. I live in a caravan with the rest of my family.” A two story home is a luxury the Aquato traveling circus could not afford. Primarily because one cannot move a house.

"Wow really? I had to stay in a trailer for 3 weeks when I was acting in this one movie in Russia. I wonder if it's kinda the same thing!"

The boy kicks his feet.

"But uh, I was talking about your new house. The one here. What's that like?"

“Pretty simple. Or at least, I think it is.” 

Razputin’s only example of normal suburban homes were the houses in Boyd Cooper’s mind and the images he’s come across on billboards or posters. 

“Like I said, there’s a lot to climb or swing around on, like trapezes and ledges and tightropes.”

"Oooh, can I see it?" Wallace looks excited for a moment, then stops himself. "Sorry, um. I just don't get to see new stuff here very much and that sounds really cool!"

“Sure! But you probably shouldn’t try to use any of the stuff there,” He lets out a high pitched giggle before exiting the furniture store and walking to his tall green house.

"What?! But I want to climb too! That sounds like so much fun!" Wallace skips along beside him, thinking about what he could do. He doesn't notice that Charles is watching the two of them.

Raz shoots into the house and up the stairs, eager to get there before Wallace so he had time to prep himself.

However the moment he reaches the top the entire house shakes, and the floor begins to split underneath his feet. He quickly jumps to the side but fails to grab ahold of something and is shaken to the ground. Light pours in and Raz finds Charles looking down upon them. The man had opened the house by its hinges in the back, splitting it in half so he could peer inside.

"Raz!" Wallace cries out, clinging to the banister at the bottom of the stairs. He sees Charles and his face goes white.

"I was wondering when you would return to your home." The man says. "I must say, your acrobatic reputation precedes you, but will you be able to impress me?"

The young Psychonaut gets up and dusts himself off, glaring at the imposing figure above him. “I know I’m a circus performer and all but I don’t think I feel comfortable with an audience watching right now. Besides, my act is going to be a lot harder when the stage is in half.”

Charles tilts his head. "You have stage fright? I find that hard to believe. And the split stage is to add an extra level of versatility. Look, you can still climb along either side of the house, but if you prefer a challenge you can attempt to swing between the halves."

“I think I’ll pass. I haven’t looked at the hospital yet, and I was just showing Wally here the equipment. Right?”

He looks at Wallace expectantly. The last thing Razputin wants to do is put on a show for this megalomaniac. The boy only glances at Raz, curling against the wall at the first step on the stair case so he looks smaller to Charles. The big man himself leans forward.

"But you're here, and I'm here, and it is convenient for everyone. Show me your physical prowess, Razputin."

Raz takes a step back. It seems there are no other option here, unless Raz wants to face some serious consequences. So instead he lowers his goggles and grumbles.

He runs over to the first platform, jumping on and off of it onto the beam sticking out of the wall. His form is straight and perfect as he flips from one pole to the next before grabbing on to the trapeze and launching himself upwards. However instead of going over to the next half of the house, he uses his psychic boost to push himself on to the exposed roof of the house. Now he’s standing on the roof and closer to Charles, facing him.

“There, I did what you wanted. Can you leave us alone now?”

There's no change in Charles' face, but his eyes betray satisfaction...and wickedness. 

"That was an excellent performance. You are well worth my time and energy."

Wallace breathes out slowly in relief.

“Glad to hear that.” Raz rolls his eyes beneath his goggles and does a flip off of the roof, landing back on the floor of his split open house. He walks over to Wallace, who’s still on the floor, and extends a hand.

“Are you alright?”

"Y-Yeah..." The boy takes his hand hesitantly, and keeps looking up at Charles like he expects to be picked up and taken away from his new friend. The man only watches them silently.

"Um, maybe we can go somewhere else now?" He asks it more to Charles than to Raz. Their kidnapper inclines his head, a sign that he will permit it.

“Great, lets go.”

He practically drags Wallace down the steps and out of the house, making a speedy getaway into the first floor of the hospital. Here the supplies are kept and the lobby is empty. Upstairs is where the actual patients rooms are, as well as the missing roof. Since Charles is still watching they stay out of view and earshot on the first floor.

“Man, talk about a major creep. Like being stuck here isn’t enough already.”

Wallace surprises Raz with a hug. He's shaking.

Raz freezes for a moment, unsure of what to do. His arms hover in the air before finding their place around the trembling boy.

“Hey... are you okay? You don’t need to worry. I wouldn’t have let him hurt you.”

"I wasn't worried about me, stupid!" The child actor whispers, on the verge of tears. "I was worried about you! I was...was scared he decided you weren't good enough!"

Raz seems a little baffled by Wally’s concern for him and his safety. 

“But I did fine, and I don’t want to be a part of that guy’s standards anyways.”

"No, you don't understand! If he didn't like your talents he would have - have killed you, or given you to the witch!" 

The idea of this is enough to push Wally to real tears, and he tries not to cry into Raz' chest. The young agent’s confidence is sobered by the genuine worry his new friend displays for him. He places his hands on Wallace’s shoulders and holds him a little bit away so he can face him.

“Wally, I’m serious when I say I’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with a lot of things before and this is another problem I’ll get rid of. I can handle myself, alright?”

The boy looks like he really wants to believe this, but then another wave of sadness hits him and he wails, "I'm sorry, I trust you, I really trust you Raz but I - that's what my costar said and then Charles...then he..."

Wallace's face crumples into sobs and he hides his face. Raz gently moves Wallace to a couch in the waiting room so that he has somewhere to sit. It is enraging to hear Charles would do something as awful as that, take away this boy’s friend and do who knows what to them, leaving Wally traumatized. He pats his friend on the back. The younger boy is having trouble speaking through his tears, so he just cries and leans into Raz. It takes a few minutes, but he’s eventually able to compose himself.

“S-Sorry...”

“It’s fine. I don’t blame you.”

One thing was for sure, once Razputin comes back with reinforcements, that Charles guy would have a hell of a time. He helps Wallace up and looks out the door. The village is as quiet as ever, with the rest of the scenery stretching until it hits the glass edge. He turns to the boy.

“Are you ready to explore?”

"Yeah." Wallace wipes his face and gives a shaky smile. "I can show you everything, I've been here for almost a year and I know this place really well. Where do you want to go first?"

Raz walks down the streets, which turn into dirt paths and then grass as they progress. “I’m not sure. What’s there to see besides the town?”

"Well, there's the park mostly, and the houses where everyone lives. A lot of the houses are empty cause people don't like to live alone."

“What about out here?”

He motions to the “wild lands” of the dome, mostly grass and bushes and other vegetation, as well as the lake in a corner.

"Oh, that used to be part of the park too, but Lucas had trouble keeping all the plants nice everywhere so he gave up on that part. No one else really wanted to fix it so it's just this now. There aren't any animals or giant bugs though, so it's fun to play in sometimes!"

“Huh...”

His eyes wander up a shrunken down tree, made to fit the area. It was one of four and all kept small so they could not reach the hole in the top. It looks like they won’t be a choice in escape. What a shame.

Wally sees him looking at the tree and mistakes it for something else. "You wanna climb it?"

“No, I think I’ve done enough climbing.”

He gives a quick glance to Charles, still looking down through the glass.

Petunia holds the ends of her skirt and grumbles. “Charlieeee!... I’m so bored! Can’t I go out and get a toy for myself? You got one, so I should get one too.” The witch has no taste for watching small people interact or live their lives like Charles did.

Charles watches the Putnam family working hard in their backyard, then turns to his ward.

"Life doesn't work that way, Petunia, where one gets something they enjoy and so another should as well. But I suppose it wouldn't hurt this time. Were you thinking about someone or somewhere in particular?"

“Anyone! I just need something, or else I’m going to die from boredom. I’ll go somewhere new, and I won’t get caught at all, I promise!”

She grabs her board and satchel before running up the stairs. Charles’ words of wisdom have fallen on deaf ears, with Petunia already out the door and searching for her new prey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CLYDE: just for all of y'all out there, this is a comprehensive list of the "inhabitants" and names, ages, and gender. Arbor is labelled O for other, due to their nonconformity
> 
> Isabella (Bella) Woodland - F/18  
Wallace Elmer - M/9  
Lucas Dallanton - M/36  
Abor Tettenary - O/23  
Sharon Lewy - F/42  
Tom Dunken - M/30  
Henry Gold - M/57  
Isaiah Putnam - M/48  
Ruth Putnam - F/39  
Digger Putnam - M/19  
Abby Putnam - F/15  
Sarah Putnam - F/15


	3. To Behold

Lili arrives at camp that morning and is surprised to see that Raz isn't there to greet her. She frowns, confused because she knows he was supposed to come earlier than her and he wouldn't miss the chance to come say hi. She internally shrugs, thinking he might just be busy with campers, and pulls her luggage out of the car, making the walk up to the main lodge. To her surprise, things aren’t as peaceful as they should be. The campers, old and new, all seem anxious and tense as Sasha, Milla, and two other counselors discuss something inaudible. Elton is the only one to turn around and acknowledge her arrival (of course).

“O-Oh! Hey Lili! I’m glad you made it, I was beginning to worry you disappeared too... But, I would have saved you of course.”

Lili blinks at him, completely caught off guard. "Um, thanks Elton. What's going on?"

“Y-You didn’t hear? Raz and one of the new interns went missing on the very first day! They think she may have kidnapped him, but I wouldn’t worry too much ab-“

"What?!" Lili pushes her bag into the boy's arms and runs straight for Sasha and Milla. "Hey! You better know where Raz is or someone's gonna get burned!"

The two super star agents notice the girl approaching and Sasha instructs the other two counselors to round up the kids while Milla bends down to greet Lili.

“Oh dear, I’m so sorry about all this Lili. We’re trying our best right now to figure out what happened but we’re still a little short on supplies since the disappearance was so sudden.”

"What happened to Raz? Why isn't there an army of agents looking for him? Why didn't anyone tell me about it?!" Her voice gets louder and louder in anger and worry.

It’s Sasha’s turn to speak now. He puts out the cigarette he was smoking on the side of his shoe, which is beginning to become stained with ash and burn marks from the stressful day he’s having.

“We did not tell you because we’re still unsure on the details of this escapade ourselves. For all we know, our counselor had abandoned our work and Razputin has wandered off... which, is unlikely, but not out of character.” He lights another cigarette and places it in his mouth, taking a deep breath from it. “We’ve already sent some men out to find him, and Vodello and I plan to make a quick visit before we go out hunting ourselves.”

Lili takes a deep breath to try and calm herself down. It doesn't work very well, but at least she's trying.

"Okay. Is there anything you can tell me? Where Raz was last seen, what the counselor looked like, anything weird?"

Milla straightens herself out, “The counselor was female, with black pigtails. She told us her name was Rachel.”

“Which we believe was simply a cover name.” Sasha tacks on helpfully.

“Yes, well... Would you like to come with us Lili? We’re going to go see Ford for his advice.”

"Are you kidding? My boyfriend is missing and you're asking if I'm gonna stay out of it?" Lili says, already heading towards the stump that will lead them to Ford's underground lair. She memorizes the details of the strange counselor, vowing that if she ever gets her hands on her, that impostor will regret ever stepping 10 feet within Raz' space.

Milla sighs. “She’s quite worked up, isn’t she?...”

“Headquarters will be too if we don’t find him.” Losing your brain and the brains of all the children last year was one thing. Coming back to the Mother Lobe and telling them a child has disappeared already was a recipe for demotion and disaster.

The three of them go one at a time, allowing the automated cart system to drive them to Ford’s sanctuary deep underground. Sasha it the first to address the veteran Psychonaut.

“Agent Cruller, sir. Have you heard the news?”

"I'm afraid so," the former Psychonaut's head says gravely. "I wish I would have had the presence of mind to come down here sooner, but my other personas kept me up on the surface until recently. I've found the footage that shows us what happened to Razputin."

He pulls up a video feed of the parking lot, dated the day before. A blurry figure that's easily recognizable as Razputin comes into the frame, looking around. On the feed, the “counselor” comes from behind him and throws something bright and quick that goes into his neck and disappears. Raz, accordingly, snaps his head in the direction the thing came from. Then, something truly bizarre happens. The boy becomes smaller and smaller, until he’s only inches tall. He’s easily scooped up and shoved into the woman’s bag. After that she makes her getaway.

Milla blinks, and Sasha holds his forehead. The man is baffled. “That... footage isn’t altered at all, is it? It could have been corrupted.”

"Bah, impossible, I've already checked 3 times over." Ford shakes his head, looking tired and almost defeated. "If it's a psychic power, it's one I've never heard of before."

"Well who cares what weird powers that lady has! Now we know she has Raz, and we gotta save him!" Lili pounds her fist into her hand.

Milla smiles. “Lili is right. We’ll have to notify the other agents now that we know this woman was the one who took Razputin.”

Sasha nods and holds his fingers to his head, communication telepathically. Once he’s done he adjusts his suit. “We should be going now. I have a feeling they’re going to need our assistance in finding Razputin.”

"Lead the way!" Lili announces, ready to finally be doing something. 

Ford looks at the screen, still troubled. "Be careful, you three. There's no telling what you'll be up against with this woman. We don't even know if she's working alone or with others."

“We will.” Milla gives Ford a wave of goodbye as the three made their exit. No matter what, Lili was determined to find Raz. Wherever he was.

\-- --

Where Raz happens to be right now is in front of the Putnam's house, with Wally shuffling nervously at his side. 

"You know, you'll meet them eventually, you don't gotta say hi right now. Let's do it later." The boy practically whines.

“If I’m going to meet them eventually it may as well be now. It’s just rude to keep them waiting,” Raz reasons. 

He looks up at the home, a sturdy wooden one with a chimney in the center and a barn with animals of a shrunken nature roaming around it or in it. Without care nor concern he raises a closed fist and raps it against the door.

“Hello? Anybody home?”

The door opens after a bit and Digger peers down at him. "Oh, hey. Didn't expect to see you here. You need something?"

“Just greeting the last of my neighbors. I haven’t met your parents yet.” Mr. and Mrs. Putnam are two figures he’s seen, but not yet encountered.

A pair of voices rings out from behind Digger. 

“Well, look who came back Sarah. The two goblins are back, and at our doorstep,” Abby points out snidely.

Wallace squeaks and hides behind Raz. Digger just rolls his eyes, not looking back at his younger sisters.

"Alright, whatever. I'll go let them know you're here."

He opens the door further to invite them inside, then walks off farther into the house, leaving them at the mercy of the twins. Raz attempts to step inside, but Abby and Sarah are right there in his path.

“We didn’t give you two permission to come in yet, did we?”

The psychic boy stumbles and glares. “Well then clearly you two don’t know how to greet your guests if you don’t even let them inside.”

Both girls look at each other before turning to Razputin with anger in their eyes.

“What was that, leather cap?”

"Raz, don't..." Wally tugs lightly at his arm, trying to stay out of sight.

Raz however simply slips his arm out of Wallace’s grip and whispers to him, “Wally, there’s no way I’m letting these two badmouth me. They may be older but they’re not that scary.”

The boy closes his mouth and watches the sneering twins, fidgeting nervously with his fingers.

“Abby? Sarah?”

The two girls immediately stand to attention and move to the wall as two figures approach them. One is Mrs. Putnam, an aged and tired looking woman wearing a bonnet and dress similar to Abby’s. The other is Mr. Putnam, a large man worn from year upon years of farm work in his life.

Mrs. Putnam’s eyes light up. “Oh my, Wallace, and you’re the new arrival. Please, come in.”

Raz looks at Wally and smiles comfortingly before entering the rustic wooden home.

"It's nice to formally meet you." Mr. Putnam says cordially. "The girls have told us so much about you already, I knew I just had to meet the boy behind the myths."

“It’s nice to meet you too sir.” Razputin greets the hefty man respectfully as they’re lead into a communal living space before the fireplace.

“Would you boys like something to drink? Tea perhaps?” Mrs. Putnam asks.

“No thanks.” Razputin politely declines. “But, if you don’t mind me asking you,” He says, turning to Mr. Putnam, “How long have you guys been living here?”

"It's getting close to four years now, I believe." Mr. Putnam strokes his beard, and a far-off look appears in his eyes.

Digger sighs and looks away, very clearly not wanting to talk about being trapped in this place for so long.

Abby and Sarah lower their eyes and hold their hands in front of them, and Mrs. Putnam pauses from reaching into the cupboard.

Razputin shifts uneasily. That topic definitely hit a nerve. He’s quick to try and change the subject. “Have you ever noticed anything about this place that’s weird? I mean, the entire thing is weird, but maybe something that would be a weakness in those two giants’ plans.” The giants of course being Charles and Petunia.

Mr. Putnam looks up sharply. "Young man, I understand you've just began this trial yourself, but you cannot tempt the plans He has for us. Confronting the demons that hold us captive will do nothing but bring grief and suffering down upon you."

“But if I don’t my friends and coworkers might be in danger when they come looking for me! Besides, I’m a professional at this sort of thing.”

Mrs. Putnam walks back over to the boy. “Professional or not, those two are agents of the Devil. They will only do harm to you if you dare defy them. It would do you best to pray for safety instead.”

Abby and Sarah do not speak, simply watch closely and glance at their brother from time to time. Digger curls his hands over the armrests of the chair he's sitting in, and he's watching Raz a lot more closely now, as if trying to measure something in his mind. Wally moves a little bit, uncomfortable with the topic.

"Um, thanks for letting us visit, Mr. and Mrs. Putnam."

“It’s... no trouble at all, Wallace,” Mrs. Putnam sighs.

Raz nods and turns to the door, without waiting for Wally to follow. These people clearly had given up hope of escape, and while it was saddening, he isn’t going to wait around for them to change their minds.

Sarah and Abby finally move now, approaching their father. Sarah whispers to him.

“I’d beware of that boy with the goggles. He’s seen to be somewhat of a brute.”

The man watches the boys leave, his face getting grim from his daughter's comment. "We must hold steady in adversity, and recognize that not all who drown are willing to be rescued."

Digger's mouth tightens, and he looks away again.

Outside, Wally runs to catch up to Raz. "Hey, are you okay?"

“I’m fine. I just don’t get why everyone’s so afraid. So what if Charles is dangerous? That’s already obvious. That’s why we should fight and try and escape!”

He has no regard for whoever may hear, walking down the streets to his own house. Hiding away in fear is not something Razputin wants to be known for, or experience for that matter.

Wallace looks up nervously, but Charles is turned away at his desk. He just hopes the man hasn't heard any of this.

"Um, maybe we can go back to Sharon's and my house? She gets kinda worried if I don't check in with her every so often."

Raz stops in his tracks and turns around to face Wallace.

“I guess that sounds good.”

They both go in the opposite direction and let themselves in to the white house. Bella is nowhere to be seen, but the familiar sound of her quiet singing could be heard from one of the rooms.

At least, familiar to Wally, since Raz seems a little confused. “Who’s singing?”

"Oh! Bella must be in a good mood today!" Wally perks up, looking in the direction of the beautiful voice. He falters a bit. "Or Charles wants her to sing for him later...so she's warming up first."

Razputin frowns. It sounds like he isn’t the only one forced to show off his skills to that monster of a man. He looks over the room a second time. They’re the only ones there.

“Where’s Sharon?”

"Probably doing laundry or something. Do you mind if I check on Bella real quick? Just to make sure she's alright?"

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

He waves to Wally as the boy slips into the hallway where the singing is coming from. As for him, Raz wanders in the other direction of the house in search of Sharon.

The woman herself is in the backyard, hanging wet clothes onto a clothesline. She hears the back door open and turns around, smiling when she sees Raz.

"Welcome back, Razputin! Did you enjoy your day out?"

“Yeah. It was pretty good.” He closes the door behind him and wandered by the side of the clothesline. “Do you need any help with that?”

"Oh you're so sweet! You're welcome to help if you'd like." She nudges the basket towards him a bit. Then she hesitates. "I saw Charles opened your house earlier. I'm guessing he wanted you to do something for him. Are you doing alright?"

He picks up a soggy dress and casually summons a levitation ball beneath him to hang it up on the tall clothesline.

“I’m alright, he just asked me to do some of my acrobatics.” Raz pauses, “Why does he even need us to do these things anyways?”

“Because he thinks it’s amusing,” Sharon says grimly as she hangs up a shirt. “This entire thing is entertainment to him, a hobby. He’ll keep us as long as he likes us, and when that happens he discards us. It’s happened to many over the years. I’m just lucky enough to be a doctor, I’m useful in other ways besides amusement.”

“That’s pretty messed up.” Using people as one’s personal playthings was definitely a new low in his books. Even Loboto wouldn’t stoop that low.

He clips a pillow case on to the clothesline. “How long has this been going on? This place, and the kidnappings.”

“I don’t know. I’ve been here for over three years now, and there’s only been a few more people that have come and gone during my time here. My guess is that he’s done for much longer than 4 or 5 years though.”

She stops hanging up the laundry and glances at the house.

“Has Wallace mentioned who he came here with?”

“... Yeah. Something about a co-star who never came back.”

He follows suit, allowing his arms to hang limply by his sides.

“Do you think they’re still alive? I could try and save them, once I break out.”

“Raz honey, you really need to stop talking about that outside. It’s dangerous.”

Sharon bends down so she can look Raz in the eyes.

“And I can honestly tell you that if Charles didn’t kill people himself, he’d hand them over to Petunia - the witch. And no one has ever lasted longer than a month with her. It’s too late for any of them. I really appreciate your kindness and determination to save everyone, but it’s just not possible.”

Razputin frowns. It was a shame to think Wally would never see his friends again, or that all those people were taken here and never had the chance to see their friends and families again. However he was determined to spare himself that fate.

“Alright, I won’t talk about it anymore. But I’m still going to help everyone out of here.”

There’s a fierce confidence in his eyes and in his tone.

"Please don't do anything you'll regret later, Razputin. Please." She puts as much emphasis on the last word as she can, holding his shoulders. "The last time someone tried to escape, it was awful. You're very brave, but you're young. You don't deserve what could happen."

“... I won’t.” He was not going to regret getting the hell out of here, once he had the chance. And that technically meant he wasn’t doing anything he would regret, doesn’t it? It’s flawless logic.

“I’ll go check on Wally.”

His levitation ball disappears and he runs into the house to find his newly made friend. Sharon squeezes her eyes shut a moment, knowing that boy isn't going to give up. Then she finishes with the laundry, solemnly resigned about Raz' decision.

Wally is sitting on the living room couch, listening quietly to the soft singing coming out of the other room. He looks up when Raz comes in.

"Hey Raz. Bella's doing okay, so I wanted to leave her alone while she's still in a good mood, you know?"

“I get it.” Raz is about to sit himself down onto the couch when there’s a knock at the door. He pauses and looks at Wally.

“Were you guys expecting anybody?”

"No...?" The boy looks confused, staring at the door. "Maybe Lucas wanted to talk about something."

He chuckles sarcastically at the idea of Lucas actually coming out of his house to interact with somebody.

When he opens the door his suspicious are confirmed, in the worst way possible. Abby Putnam smiles back at him without earning a smile in return.

“Good afternoon to you two. My brother was asking you meet him at your home, Raz. He did not find you there and sent me to fetch you.”

Wally jumps off the couch, nervous and suspicious. "Why didn't he just come here himself? He knows you hate us."

“You can go ask him yourself if you’re going to be nosy.” Sarah’s face immediately darkens. 

“Alright, alright I’ll go. Wally, can you tell Sharon I’ll be back later?” To save them another back and forth like at the Putnam house, he concedes quickly to the girl’s demands.

"Okay...be careful Raz!" The boy calls out after Raz, worried for his friend but too scared of the twins to follow him.

He waves goodbye as he treks down the street. Thankfully Abby returns to her own home rather than tailing after Razputin, and soon he’s past the door of his own little green house. It’s to no surprise he finds Digger lounging on his couch, spread out and enjoying the space that does not belong to him.

"Hey," the young man addresses Raz with a simple nod of his head. "You know, you're really hard to find for someone who gabs about escaping all the time."

“That’s kind of the whole point of escaping. Not getting caught and leaving.” He practically tiptoes into the living, as if suspicious about the encounter at hand.

“Why are you here anyways?”

"Isn't it obvious? I want to help. I want to see if you can actually do it."

His caution only grows with every word given to him. “And how do I know you’re really going to do that? I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but I heard your sisters got somebody in trouble, and they didn’t come back. I want to escape, not get killed.”

"I'm not anything like my sisters," Digger snaps, irritated at the comparison. He composes himself. "Look, I get why you're suspicious. What they did was awful, but I didn't have anything to do with that. I barely even knew the lady they did it to."

He sits up a little bit and leans forward. "As far as me really wanting to do it, didn't you hear what my father said? We've been here for 4 years. 4 years, Razputin. I was 15 when we were dumped in here, and I miss the outside world so much. I can't take it much more."

His raised eyebrow lowers. “I heard, and that seriously sucks.” Raz takes a second to weigh the offer he’s been presented with. Digger is obviously not like the rest of his family, snide or hopeless. He wants out as much as Raz does.

“... Alright, I’ll escape with you. Did you have some sort of plan to get out?”

"Like I said, the only clear way past the dome is the hatch over the hospital. I've been trying to figure out how to reach it. Do you have any ideas? Maybe we can figure something out together."

“I was actually thinking I could use some of the furniture in the stores to build a tower up to the hole. I have telekinesis so it’ll be easy!”

He brings his fingers to his chin and taps his foot in thought, “I just can’t figure out how we’re going to get the latch open... I don’t think my telekinesis will be strong enough to open it now that I’m so tiny.”

Digger raises an eyebrow at the mention of telekinesis. "I dunno what that is, but if you think it will work then I trust you. As far as the latch goes, my dad has some heavy-duty tools in our house, I could probably find something that would work."

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Try not to freak out but I’m kind of psychic. You know, moving stuff with my mind and all that.”

Raz pulls a small pose, putting his fingers to his head and having two more outstretched, as if such a form would explain everything. He then returns to his neutral pose.

“If you think it’ll work we could probably try it, but won’t your dad notice?”

"Psychic huh? Like Tom? I guess that'll be helpful then."

The young man waves off Raz' concerns.

"Don't worry about that, tomorrow he's going to talk to Henry about my mom's dress, so he won't be near the stuff at all tonight or tomorrow. We could probably make it work tonight if you don't mind the short notice."

“The sooner we get out of here, the better! I’ll come by a little bit after lights out so we can escape, alright?”

Razputin extends his hand.

Digger takes the hand firmly. "Sounds like a plan. But you better be ready with the furniture when I show up with the tools. If my dad finds out I took them and I have nothing to show for it, he's going to kill me."

“Got it,” He nods and smiles.

The rest of the day, Razputin has nothing on his mind except for his getaway. He comes for lunch and dinner with the others in the square, talks to Wally a lot, compliments Bella on her beautiful singing voice, and settles another dispute between Tom and Abor. However once the lights are out and everything is silent, Raz is out of bed and the goggles are over his eyes. It was go time. Digger is waiting at the hospital entrance, sticking close to the shadows in case Charles comes by for a surprise visit. He has a large tool box with him.

Razputin makes a stop at the furniture store, summoning 3 large and orange telekinetic hands. He carries the furniture there and waves to Digger. Once he’s close enough, he whispers.

“I’m going to have to make a few trips back and forth. Do you have the tools?”

“Yeah,” the young man sets the tool box down and opens it.

There’s a lot there; hammers, wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, and one pair of heavy-duty bolt cutters.

“I didn’t know what would work best for the latch, so I brought everything I could find.”

“That works. Let’s do this!”

He runs up the stairs and begins stacking the furniture he’s brought, as well as the beds in the patient rooms and other things he could manage. It isn’t exactly stable, but he makes sure it won’t topple over if he climbs it. Raz goes back for more furniture and soon enough the towers is big enough for him to use his levitation ball.

Now, it was time to choose his weapon for escape.

“Hmm... Maybe I can break through with the hammer?”

Digger hands him the tool and looks dubiously up at the tower. “You sure that’s safe enough to climb? And how are you going to reach the latch from the top?”

“It’s fine. My levitation ball makes me lighter.”

As if that makes any sense to a non-psychic, Razputin summons his levitation ball underneath him and scales the tower. Thankfully all the height is just enough for him to reach the top. Once up there he wound back the hammer. This was it, if this worked they were getting out of here! With as much power as he could muster Raz brought the hammer against the glass hatch.

Digger sucks in a breath as the hammer makes a loud noise against the latch. He looks around quickly to see if the noise has woken anyone.

Raz holds the sides of his head, trying to recover from the rebound. He grits his teeth and looks over the town. Most of the lights are still out, except in Henry’s place where there seems to be a candle lit. Crap. They had to move faster. This time he let his telekinetic hand do all the work, smashing it against the latch a second time.

Digger’s eyes go wide at the sight of the glowing orange hand, watching the display in awe. Razputin’s attempts bear no fruit, only create an unholy racket that attracts half of the town out of their homes. He quickly drops from the tower and sticks the landing, the hammer falling besides him.

“It’s not working! What do we do?”

“Maybe the bolt cutters?” The young man asks desperately, holding it out.

He takes the tool and climbs back up the tower. Raz tries to use the bolt cutters to pry the latch open, hit it, cut the glass, the hinges, something. However he and the tools are just too small.

The sound of the basement door creaks through the basement, and everyone who was outside marveling Razputin’s escape attempt quickly bolted inside their homes and locked the doors.

Digger takes off as well, dropping his father’s toolset near the bottom of the tower before he runs. He doesn’t even stop to look back until he’s reached his house. Charlie steps through the basement door, looking mildly irritated at being woken up at such an ungodly hour. He sees the furniture tower immediately, as well as the tiny figure standing on top of it. Raz’s eyes become wide and he jumps down from the tower. Before Charles can reach the bottom step he’s down the stairs and out of the hospital. He was going to have to hide somewhere- but where? Every house in the area could either have their roofs taken off or split open in half. 

It didn’t matter, because he kept on running.

Charles turns on the basement light, steps up to the exhibit and tracks the boy’s running. His eyes narrow as they drift over to the makeshift tower and the large crack in the glass around the latch. He pulls out his phone and calls Petunia.

Petunia answers after a few seconds. “I’m sorry Charlie, I was asleep! What’s wrong? Do you need me?”

Razputin runs out of the town and into the park, climbing up one of the larger trees. If he couldn’t hide in a building than the crowded branches of a tree would have to do.

“Apologies for waking you up, dear, but I was wondering if you’d like to borrow a specimen from my collection for a little while? You’ve done such a good job for me these last few days.”

Charles steps around the glass to peer at the trees where Raz is hiding.

“Yes!! Yes! I’m so glad! But are you sure you want me to take one? You just put in a new addition, and I know you like it when you have a lot of toys...”

Petunia was already getting dressed and ready to fly out to Charles as the phone rests on her shoulder.

“That’s the greatest part, you get to play with the new one. He’s a bit of a handful right now and I think some time with you will do wonders. Are you still interested in him?”

“Oh! The new one! A-Already? But it’s only been two days Charlie!”

She is amazed her guardian was willing to pass up a collectible so easily. This kid must really be giving him a lot of trouble. Maybe she could fix that.

"Yes, it has only been two days. And guess who I just found making an escape attempt? It seems an attitude adjustment is in order, and I trust you to do what you do best, so long as you leave no permanent damage."

“Aw, so he isn’t a keeper for me? But that’s okay! Thank you, Charlie!”

She’s out of her room and racing down the hallways to collect the precious new toy she so rightfully deserved. In her eyes, Charles was the most generous man on Earth.

Razputin huddles on his spot on the branch. He’s staying close to the middle of the tree so it would not be easy to grab him. He should’ve known Digger would bolt on him in the first sign of danger- now he alone would be facing the consequences. Charles pockets his phone and waits patiently for Petunia to arrive. He walks over to his desk and picks up the glass jar, returning to watch the boy in the tree as if this is nothing more than an inconvenience to him.

Petunia is soon to come through the door and stand at full attention besides Charles. However the glass dome catches her attention and her smile grows.

“So where is he? Where?”

The man points at the tree, where Razputin is huddled within its branches. 

"It appears he thinks this is the best place to hide. Would you like to help me extract him?"

“Yes! I can do it for you!”

She dances over to the dome and flings the latch open from top, reaching a long arm inside and grabbing at the tree.

Razputin quickly maneuvers from one branch to the next, evading the groping fingers. However it isn’t long before he’s caught. There’s only so much space to hide in something like a tree. Petunia retracts her arm quickly and tosses the boy into the open jar.

“Aaah!” Raz cries out.  
"Thank you, Petunia." Charles closes the jar and screws the lid quickly, holding it up so he can be eye-level with Raz.

"I suppose I should have expected this, what with you being a former government agent, but I had assumed you were not stupid enough to test my patience so soon. I was wrong."

“You’re the stupid one, for kidnapping a government agent and all these innocent people! They don’t deserve this!”

The man's face spasms just a little bit, and in that moment one could clearly see the monster behind the cold facade. He composes himself quickly and his expression is ice cold. He hands the jar to Petunia without further ado.

"Remember dear, I want this one back."

Petunia is bouncing on her heels and opening and closing her hands. “Yes sir!”

She snatches the jar from him and runs out of the basement.

In the village, some of the townsfolk were just outside their doors listening to the exchange and witnessing the boy being taken away. However as soon as it’s over they run inside. Bella is shaking and covering her face with a hand. She’s standing a little ways away from Sharon.

“I-I can’t believe he did that!... What are we going to tell Wally when he wakes up?”

Sharon goes to hug the poor girl. Her own face is ashen. "I don't know, Bella. We have to be very careful but honest. He'll hate us forever if we lie."

Charles starts going up the basement stairs and gets ready to turn off the lights again. But he pauses and turns towards the exhibit below.

"This could have been avoided easily if you had explained what happens to disobedient specimens," he says loudly, knowing everyone can hear him even if he can't see them. "And I will be back tomorrow to find out if any of you were aware of this pitiful attempt, or conspired with Razputin in any way. Goodnight."

He flicks the lights off, closes the basement door, and strolls leisurely towards his room.

The night is peaceful, but only for those of a normal size. Razputin finds himself shoved in a jar, shoved in a drawer and kept away in the dark for the entire night.

\-- --  
In the morning, he finds himself rudely awakened by Petunia lifting his jar and shaking it violently.

“Wakey wakey! We’re going to have sooo much fun today!”

Her room is a mess, full of an assortment of strange and peculiar items. There are thick heavy books and jaded papers all over the floor, a drawer and a closet, a circular bed, a very stereotypical cauldron in the corner, and a glass tank on top of the drawer. She skips over to the walk in closet and opens it up, revealing it to be a smaller room.

There are 5 different birdcages hanging from the ceiling, all different shapes. The largest one is about as big as Petunia's head, while the smallest one looks like it was made for the world's smallest bird - even Wally would have to crouch to fit inside it. Three of the cages hold people, but it's hard to tell whether they're sleeping, unconscious, or worse. Below the cages are two tables. One holds what looks like a hamster playground, with tubes and mini rooms stacked into a nightmare of a labyrinth. The other table has a large desk lamp, hanging over what is clearly a miniature examination board - complete with large straps built in. Various tools line one side of that table, while the other houses a plethora of miniature outfits that are definitely meant for putting forcefully on whoever Petunia wants.The clothes vary from frilly dresses to career outfits to bizarre, almost painful-looking ones.

Raz takes a step back on the glass surface of the jar, only to lose his footing and slip since the witch was handling his container very roughly. He was becoming more concerned for his safety as he notices different, pain inducing details of the room. Even a plastic doll would find this too cruel to endure, and those things aren’t alive. But Raz is of course. Petunia begins to screw the cap off of the jar and quickly puts the opening of it to a hole in the very top of the labyrinth. Razputin is dropped unceremoniously into one of the multi-colored tubes from his hole.

He groans and shakes his head before readjusting his goggles. Petunia is giggling and taps the tube a few times.

“Come on, come on, go! There’s no other way ouuuut.”

Raz dusts himself off before getting up and lowering his goggles over his eyes. It was easy to see from the outside that once inside, the end was the only exit. Now it was just a matter of finding the thing.

He takes off in a sprint, jumping down another hole and sticking the landing this time before making a turn. It was just a maze- the worst that could happen is he gets lost for a bit. Yes, that’s what he thinks, until a concealed rat trap snaps from out of nowhere and he ducks downwards. If he hadn’t moved out of the thing, it would’ve caught him by the neck. 

Petunia giggles and claps her hands. Okay, so this was a death maze and not just a normal maze. No big deal, he’s navigated precarious situations like this. Razputin takes off down his path again, but this time he’s considerably more cautious. He dodges a multitude of certainly deadly traps- a hard turning leading to a buzzing electric wall, a spike pit he almost dropped into, a saw that zoomed past him and cut his cheek- anyone not trained in the art of dodging would almost certainly get killed. However once he begins recognizing the telltale signs for upcoming attacks, he dodges them with ease. A jump, a turn, and after longer than Raz will like to admit he sees the exit. There it was! He takes off in a sprint down the straightforward tube.

Then there’s a hissing sound through the air, and a metal dart bounces off his red goggles glass. He freezes and turns around to look at the dart. 

“Oh man.” If he wasn’t wearing his goggles that definitely would’ve taken his eye out. Talk about getting lucky.

Razputin runs out of the labyrinth and on to the tabletop. Sweet freedom at last! But such freedom isn’t to last, and he’s scooped up by Petunia.

“Awww! I thought that one would get your eye! Why are your dumb goggles so thick?”

She pouts at first, but her sour expression turns into a smile.

“I’ll just take them from you, and add them to my collection!” She takes the goggles between her forefinger and her thumb and flings them off of Raz’s head.

“Hey! I had to save up a lot for those you know!”

“Ohhh?” Petunia coos, “Then I’ll give you something new!”

He’s tossed recklessly on to the other table top, the one with straps and tools and an array of small clothing. She goes looking through the headwear section of her compartment.

Razputin gets up and tries to run across the table, but Petunia brings an open palm down against him and flattens him to the table.

“Where do you think you’re going?! We’re playing dress up!”

“I’m not really a fan!” He retorts. The woman growls and applies pressure before realizing the back of her hand was hot, getting hotter-

Petunia howls and brings her hand upwards to examine it. She was on fire!

Raz summons his levitation ball and rolls on to it, jumping off of the table. The ball softens his landing and soon enough he’s speeding towards the door. However it is slammed shut by a very angry looking Petunia.

“You little pain in the neck!” She screeches and swings down low at the ground. Raz is sent flying back underneath the table and hits the wall with a grunt of pain. He pushes himself off of the ground and keeps close to the wall as he runs to the door again. Petunia tries to grab him, but he’s too far under the desks, and he keeps managing to jump under or over her fingers.

While she’s still searching for him blindly with her hand he makes it to the door and uses a telekinetic hand to turn the knob, opening it.

Meanwhile, Charles opens the door to the basement and flicks on the lights. He heads down the stairs and produces a bell, which he rings loudly above the exhibit. Residents creep out of their homes, wary and frightful.

“Good morning. As I mentioned last night, there was a pitiful attempt by our new resident to leave last night. Now I’m here to ask the question: did any of you know about this, and were any of you directly involved?”

The residents remain dead silent, staring up at him in dread or sharing nervous glances. Charles folds his hands behind his back.

“If you come clean, your punishment will be lessened. But if I learn later that you helped that child and didn’t tell me, you will spend time with Petunia as well.”

Charles scans the group as they all remain silent. He notes that Wallace has his face buried in Sharon’s pants, crying quietly. The man steps over to the part of the exhibit containing the hospital. The furniture tower sways there as incriminating evidence. Charles looks at the crack in the dome and notices the miniature tools at the bottom of the tower. 

"Who do these belong to?"

No one speaks up, so Charles opens the latch and drops his hand into the area, carefully picking up the tools scattered along the ground, as well as the tool box. He lifts them all out and studies them carefully.

"Hmmm. I do believe these belong to the Putnam family."

Mr. Putnam turns white. Digger, standing behind his father, tries not to shake.  
Charles comes back around to the dollhouses, where everyone stands petrified. The Putnam family has practically turned to stone.

"Would one of you mind telling me how this ended up out here? Isaiah, Ruth, either of you know why?"

"W-We don't know why that's there!" Mr. Putnam says as loud as he can with his wavering voice. "I swear, sir, we would never do anything to bring your wrath down upon us!"

"You know I would like to believe you, Isaiah, but the evidence implies otherwise." Charles displays the incriminating items for the entire group of people to see.

Digger finally has the nerve to speak without his voice giving out.

"I think Raz s-stole it from our house!"

Charles raises an eyebrow. "Explain your reasoning."

The young man trembles just a bit, but he's had the entire night to plan this lie.

"Um, w-well, yesterday he came over to our house with- he came over yesterday, and I was showing him what our family could do with what we had. And, and I didn't realize he'd stolen the toolbox until last night, when he was banging on the glass and you came downstairs."

"Is that so?" The man turns the tiny hammer over in his palm, thinking over Digger's words. "Isaiah, what do you have to say to that? Was your toolbox missing last night?"

"I-I don't know..." Mr. Putnam says hesitantly. "I hadn't thought to check."

“Well, perhaps that is the way it was then. I will continue my investigation of course, but maybe Razputin simply needed to learn the rules.”

Charles takes the tools with him and walks to the basement door.

“I think I will go check on him now.”

From upstairs, Petunia cries out in fury. She’s chasing Razputin across the floor of the room, trying to stomp on him or grab him. He keeps weaving between her feet and hands.

As they approach the stairs he gets an idea. Raz abruptly stops, with Petunia running past him on accident. He jumps up with his levitation ball and scales her shirt. The witch shrieks and bucks around, trying to fling him off. He jumps off of her and on to the handrail for the stairs, sliding down quicker than she could chase. Without warning, as he approaches the stairs, Raz comes grinding down the railing and flies right over his head with the added momentum. He hits the ground with his levitation ball and takes off in the opposite direction of the basement. The man whirls around, visibly startled for once, and then notices his ward still running down the stairs.

“Petunia! What is the meaning of this?!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!! He escaped! Help me catch him!” She stops only to explain herself before chasing after the shrunken down boy again.

Raz makes a wrong turn and finds himself in the kitchen. However he notices that far above him by the counter, a window was open! Perfect! He runs over to a dish towel hanging on the oven handle and climbs it. Charles moves swiftly to follow the tiny boy, hoping to catch him in the kitchen before he can hide from them or get out of the house. Raz is already running across the marble countertop. Petunia growls and lunges at him, but he jumps up high and bounces off the top of her head. 

Charles grabs a hand towel and tries to throw it over Raz, in order to make it easier to subdue and catch him.

Razputin dodges out of the way and sprints towards the window, but Petunia recovers and shuts it. He looks in terror as his only escape option is cut off.

“You have nowhere to go,” Charles says with barely restrained irritation. “If you want to come out of this without permanent harm, I suggest you surrender yourself now.”

He picks up the towel again, as well as a metal pasta restrainer.

“You can forget it.”

Raz glares, only to be surprised when Petunia jumps at him again. He narrowly dodged and drops to the kitchen floor, running and sliding underneath a small space under the table.

“Do you really expect to escape, Razputin? No one has ever managed it, and no one ever will.” Charles gets on his knees to peer under the table at the boy. “Would you like to hear what I did to the last specimen who got this far?”

“I don’t know, you fed them to a snake or something messed up like that?”

He pulls on the bottom of his eye and sticks his tongue out when the man bends down to look at him. The man only tilts his head at the childish display, and he reaches forward with the towel in one hand and the restrainer in the other.

“No. Animals are too unclean for my taste. When I caught the one who tried to leave, I had him taxidermied. He’s on my bed mantle.”

“Gross,” Razputin cringes as he moves back more. He notices a large crack in the wall under the table where he is. It probably wasn’t empty, but he was cornered... Should he go?

The answer is yes, because Petunia just shoved the entire goddamn table out of the way, and she’s practically foaming at the mouth. He sprints into the crack in the wall. Charles mutters something under his breath that isn’t fitting for a man of his status, then tries to stick the towel into the crack with his fingers. It’s just small enough that he can’t make it. Razputin backs away from the crack. He’s now behind the walls, and it’s incredibly musty. The smell of dust and years of reworking and paint chips is overwhelming. However he cannot stop here, otherwise they’d catch him once he exited. So he turns and walks in whatever direction seems best.

Petunia stops her foot. “How dare he!!”

The man leans back on his heels, irritation practically oozing from his every pore. He puts his finger to his mouth, considering the situation. Then he stands up and brushes his clothes off before looking at his ward.

"We will have to convene and find a way to catch him some other way. In the meantime, Petunia, I'd like you to tell me exactly how the boy managed to escape from your grasp."

Petunia whimpers and puts her hands behind her back. Her eyes lower to the floor. “Well... We were playing, and I wanted to dress him up, but he ran. I tried to stop him, I really did, but he lit my hand on fire!! Look!”

She reveals the burn mark on the back of her hand.

"Hmm. I suppose I should have warned you more thoroughly about his powers, but I do recall warning you to be careful with him from the beginning. We will have to find a way to deal with this swiftly." Charles places the restrainer on a counter and starts walking out of the kitchen, beckoning Petunia to follow him. He's planning to find a first aid kit to help her treat her burn.

“I’m coming!” Petunia tails after him, holding the burn on her hand.

For the rest of the day, Razputin is stuck wandering and exploring the inner walls of the mansion. He finds other holes and cracks to slip out of into other parts of the room, but as long as he’s in the walls he’s confined to the first floor. After a few hours of roaming, Raz peaks out of another crack, surprised to find himself in some sort of library office. Charles is standing in the center with a phone to his ear.

"How soon can you come out?" The man says quietly. He pauses and a frown passes across his face. "No, that's not good enough. I need you here within two days at least."

Another pause.

"I will pay for overtime and travel expenses, but I'm telling you that I have an infestation and I need your expertise........Yes, you'll be using the anaesthetic gas......No, I don't care if you think that doesn't work, it will work for the problem I'm facing. Alright. Two days then. I'll see you on Wednesday."

Charles hangs up and starts tapping at his phone, altering his schedule to prepare for the upcoming arrival. 

Infestation? Anesthetic gas? Razputin ponders what he’s talking about for a moment when it hits him. HE was the infestation of course, and Charles was going to drive him out of the walls by putting him to sleep. He returns back into the wall before he can be noticed. At least now he has some information; he has two days to make his escape. Raz’s face hardens in determination and he runs back in the direction he came. His plan of action was simple: to find something that could unshrink him. There was no way he was making it to camp when he was this tiny.

After finishing up, Charles heads out of the library, keeping a close eye on the floors for any sign of his wayward specimen. He doesn't want to step on the boy by accident, but even more so he doesn't want to miss the possibility of catching Razputin off-guard and returning him to the exhibit. The man doesn't see him however, and returns to Petunia's room. He knocks before opening the door.

"I've made arrangements with my exterminator. He'll be here on Wednesday to subdue Razputin, and then we'll see about inhibiting his movements so this doesn't happen again. How is your hand?"

“It’s all good!” She waves it around gleefully.

“I can’t wait to get him back! And I’m really, really sorry about losing him... I-I won’t let it happy again!”

"No, you won't. But I've already forgiven you. He is an acrobat and a former government agent, after all. It is expected that he would be tricky."

“Aw, thank you Charlie! You’re so nice!”

Petunia claps her hands together and coos.

Meanwhile, Razputin is making his way back in the direction of the stairs. He would have to wait until night to try and raid the basement. If there was no cure to his size there, he would try Petunia’s room.

That night in the exhibit, the residents are somber and almost in mourning. It's been a full day and there has been no sign or word of Razputin. They all are fearing the worst. Wallace sits in the tall grass by the edge of the glass dome, picking listlessly at stalks and staring out at nothing. He's not doing much of anything, trying to keep his mind off the awful ideas that come to him when he thinks about his missing friend.

Without warning, the sound of muffled small footsteps can be heard. There’s a shadow running across the floor that has just reached the table leg, and it examining it. Wallace lifts his head up to look more closely. It's dark and he can't really make out what it is over by the table. But then he sees the red glint of goggles and his heart leaps into his throat. Wally scrambles to his feet and runs to the edge of the glass.

"Raz?! Is that you?"

The red goggles turn their way to the dome, and Razputin runs over. He shushes Wally when he reaches the edge but smiles. 

“Hey Wally. Try not to yell, I’m kind of on a mission right now.”

The boy tries to quiet down, but he's so thankful and excited that Raz is alive and seemingly okay.

"Oh Raz, I'm so happy you're alive! I thought I'd never see you again..."

“I’m fine! But I need some help. Do you know how I can’t get up there?” He points upwards to the table top with Charles’ supplies.

Wally looks up and stares at the stuff. He shakes his head dejectedly. "I don't know, I'm sorry. But maybe someone else would know? Do you want me to see?"

Razputin nods. “Just try and be quick. I’m not sure how much time I have.”

Wallace rushes back to Sharon's house, where he finds her making dinner. 

"Sharon! You've been on Charles' big desk, right?"

She's startled by his crazy entrance and crazier question. "Um, yes I have. What's going - ?"

"Come with me real quick!"

The boy physically pulls her out of the house and towards the tall grass. Sharon lets him do it, too surprised by his sudden energy after being depressed for so long. However she’s soon to have a cause for excitement, because on the other side of the glass dome is Razputin. He has his goggles lowered and a small but serious smile. He waves.

"Raz!" Sharon whisper-yells, running up to the glass. "Oh honey, I'm so glad to see you! Are you hurt anywhere?"

“I’m fine. Do you know how I can get up there? I’m kind of in a hurry.”

He motions to the large wooden desk. The woman hesitates, then decides that if Raz made it this far, he'll have a good chance of escaping entirely. 

"You could probably climb up the chair, it has a leg that needs to be fixed and has plenty of handholds. I saw it recently when Charles brought me out."

“Perfect! Thanks you guys! I promise I’ll get you all out of there.”

Raz waves bye to them and wastes no time running to the chair. He uses his levitation ball for an extra boost as he scales the chair. Wally and Sharon watch from the grass, excited and worried for the brave young man.

It takes him quite a while to climb the chair, but soon he finds himself on the wooden desk. There’s an arrangement of items there including papers, pens, bottles, jars, and some other normal items. Raz walks to the side and uses a telekinetic hand to pry open one of the drawers. Inside are many, many tiny items that are to be placed in homes or given to people who may need them. Razputin opens the next desk. This one mostly has medical supplies and small clothes. He grumbles when his search bears no fruit until he notices something glowing under a pile of bandages. Raz hops into the drawer and shoves them out of the way, finding glowing purple rings of energy. 

He grins. This had to be something helpful. Using his telepathy, he reaches out to Sharon and Wally.

Guys, I found something up here! They’re these glowing purple rings that are kinda flat.

Both of them flinch at the mental contact, but mostly because they weren't expecting it just then. Neither of them are sure if he can hear them back, so they wave and give thumbs-ups and grins to him from the ground. Raz looks as they wave and puts a hand up back to them before grabbing a ring. How was he supposed to use this exactly? First he tries jumping through it, but that doesn’t work. He tries holding it around his midsection but nothing happens, he tries holding it over him and there are no results, he even tries throwing it up and letting it fall to his feet. He sighs and sits cross legged in the circle. It looks like he had some brainstorming to do.

Wally giggles as he sees Raz try a bunch of crazy things with the strange ring. Then he stops giggling and starts staring as the boy gets bigger and bigger. Sharon makes a surprised noise. Razputin hardly notices he’s growing in size until suddenly the space on the table is getting smaller and all of the items from before are shrinking around him. He lets out a surprised yell as he returns to his normal height and, subsequently, come tumbling off of the desk.

Sharon winces at the crash, both because of the noise and because of the bruises the boy probably has now. She hits the glass dome to try and get Raz' attention.

"You did it! Now get out of here before someone investigates that noise!"

Raz takes a moment to shake his head and readjust his goggles before realizing he was back to normal. The purple ring disappears into nothingness and the boy stands up.

“I’ll come back for you guys!”

With that he sprints up the stairs and towards whichever way he had memorized as the exit.

Sharon closes her eyes and hopes that he manages to get out. Wally squeezes her hand and watches his friend escape. He hopes he gets the chance to see Raz again someday. That guy is his hero.

Charles happens to be in the downstairs kitchen drinking tea when he hears the crash, just down the hall. He blinks, puts down his cup, and starts walking in that direction. His phone is out and he's dialing Petunia's number. However it turns out there’s no need because Petunia jumps from the top floor and lands right in front of Charles.

“It’s HIM! He used my magic rings! I know it, I can sense it!” She’s fuming, and hardly waits for a response from her guardian before she’s charging down the hall and towards the exit.

"Then we need to cut him off before he gets outside." Charles remains calm, but he's also moving quite fast after her.

The young witch manages to cut Razputin off in the main hall, causing him to swerve and duck into a guest living room. Petunia growls and summons four glowing darts in her hand, throwing them all at Raz. He jumps and lands on the fireplace mantle, knocking a few things over. Charles sees the initial fight and turns a different way, coming into the guest living room through another door to help cut off all exits. He watches the boy crouched on his mantle.

"I must admit, I'm starting to wonder if you're more trouble than you're worth, Razputin."

“Well you should wonder what’s that thing flying at you!”

He points behind Charles. The man only turns his head slightly to see, not letting Raz out of his peripheral vision.

“Aw man, why does that work for Zilch and not for me?” Raz groans before jumping out of the way of another barrage of darts. He launched himself forward and delivered a kick into Charles’ gut. The man doubles backwards with a gasp, but has the sense to grab onto Raz' ankle when it connects with his stomach. They are both sent flying on to the floor, with Raz kicking at the man a second time to try and release his hold.

“I’ll get him, I’ll get him!!” Petunia cries as she runs to the scene and throws a dart. Raz gasps and uses a psychic boost to dodge out of the way and out of Charles’ grasp. Consequently, the dart is sent into the man.

Charles flinches as he's struck, and his eyes go wide in the most expression he's ever shown outwardly. He starts to shrink.

"Petunia! Don't let him get out!"

He cries out angrily as he gets smaller and smaller.

“O-Oh my gosh! Charlie!” She fails to heed his command, rushing over and scooping him up into her hands in a panic.

Razputin grins and uses a psi fist to karate chop the front double doors open. The moon was still high in the sky and the front fountain was illuminated with spotlights. He runs down the stairs and past the driveway.

Charles shakes his head frantically and points at the exit, urging his ward to catch the boy. She puts him down carefully on a table and then rushes out after Raz. She sees him running down the driveway and growls. How dare he try to escape? How dare he make her do that to Charlie?! She's going to make sure he can never use another stupid psychic power again. She takes off back to her room to grab her special board.

Razputin reaches a large metal gate at the end of the driveway. He attempts hitting it open, but that doesn’t work, even with the added psi-fist. His eyes scan the area until they land upon a tree that stretches above the brick wall. Perfect! He runs towards it and begins climbing. It's in this moment that Petunia comes flying out of the busted front doors on her board, screaming in rage at the boy who dared harm her guardian and get this far outside. She pulls out 4 darts between her fingers and flings them at him. Raz whips his head in her direction and barely manages to dodge the four darts. He jumps up on to the tree branch and runs up it until he’s reached the wall. The boy jumps over and lands on his levitation ball, speeding away.

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare!" She screeches, easily clearing the wall with her flying board and sending another cluster of darts at him. She swoops down to divebomb him as well after she throws them.

Raz runs out of the way of the darts and ducks when the with tries to grab on to him. If this kept up, he definitely wasn’t going to make it anywhere safe before receiving a shrinking dart to the back. He had to find a way to defeat this batty witch.

Razputin allows the levitation ball to disappear and slides across the ground before coming to a halt. He had two fingers to his temple and two more outstretched.

“Sorry, but I’m not a fan of darts!” Man that line sucks. Once he’s back at camp he’s definitely going to have to work on more magic-related comebacks.

Petunia slows down when she sees the boy turn around, and her eyes narrow hatefully. 

"What are you gonna do, huh? Gonna try and burn me or something stupid? I'm not scared of your dumb powers!"

She brandishes several more darts, waiting for him to make the first move so she can strike.

“I’m going to show you why the Psychonauts have me as their youngest agent.”

Razputin smirks and runs to the right, firing off a few rounds of psi-blasts at Petunia. She pulls up her board in front of her, hanging off of it like it's a skateboard doing airtime as it deflects the blasts. Then she swivels around and flings a dart just ahead of Raz, hoping to catch him before he can slow down to avoid it. He stops and quickly does a cartwheel in the other direction, dodging the dart. A green question mark appears before his head and he yanks the top part off of it, throwing the bottom dot at Petunia. The confusion grenade explodes in her face. 

Petunia's eyes roll and she starts zigzagging erratically in the air, screaming angry insults at him while she tries to get her bearings back. To make up for it, she begins wildly throwing darts, not caring which direction they're going. Raz zips between the darts and places himself beneath the witch. He activated his levitation ball to give him a boost, using his psychic palm balm to send him even high and above Petunia. However the next second he’s coming crashing down with the force of the psi palm attack, flattening Petunia underneath a large and forceful psychic hand. She cries out as she's hit, knocked to the ground and still dizzy. Unfortunately, with Raz so close she can tell he's right there, and she launches herself physically at him, trying to wrestle him into submission.

He jumps back and uses a telekinetic hand to hold both of her arms behind her back. There’s nothing much she can do against the might of it except for struggle in place. 

Raz pants, holding his fingers in front of him. He’s barely had anything to eat since escaping from the dome, and he hasn’t had any time to rest in hours. However despite his exhaustion he has reigned victorious over the terrifying witch.

"You can't win! You think you've escaped but we'll find you, and then Charlie will make you my toy forever! I'll break your arms and legs and you'll stay with me forever!" Petunia is practically hoarse with all the screaming now, but she's still hissing and spitting and struggling at him.

“Jeez. Talk about crazy. No wonder people call you a witch.”

Razputin chuckles weakly. He uses his free hands to snap Petunia’s wooden board over his knee, preventing her from flying anymore. Then he taps his chin in contemplation. How was he supposed to make sure she didn’t chase him again?

He snaps his fingers and grins. Razputin turns back to the mansion and winds the telekinetic hand back.

“Next time, try using a broom to fly instead!”

With that, the psychic hand throws her forward and she’s sent hurling through one of the windows of the mansion.

"No! Nooooooo!" Is her last wail as she's pitched into the glass, shattering it on impact. Petunia disappears into whatever room that window belongs to.

Raz dusts off his hands and lifts his goggles back on the top of his head. “Those guys seriously have issues.” He mutters as he turns on his heel and makes his getaway from the mansion.

——

“...and that is why you children will be having the best summer of your life, here at Camp Whispering Rock! Does anybody have any questions?” Milla wraps up the last of her speech, looking over the slew of children before her. Elton raises his hand. “Yes?”

“Where’s Coach Oleander?”

“Well, you see...” She clears her throat, “After the events of last summer, which most of you may know about, Morry was put on probation. There’s no need to worry though! We have others helping out, like me, Sasha, and-“

She gasps. “Razputin?!!”

All the campers stare at the appearance of the seemingly-missing agent as he steps out of the bushes. Sasha is so surprised he stops levitating his cigarette, only managing to catch it inches from the amphitheater ground.

Razputin looks exhausted, covered in leaves and dirt and a few minor bruises, but his face lights up with a smile when all eyes turn to stare at him. 

“I made it back just in time, huh? Heheh...”

The counselors stutter a bit, still trying to process this turn of events. Suddenly, Raz is tackled from behind by a very upset 11-year-old girl.

"Raz! You're alright!"

“Oof-“ Raz barely manages to catch himself before tumbling over. He chuckles and pats Lili on the back. “Of course I’m alright. What, were you worried about me?” He teases.

She hugs him with all her might, then realizes he has the nerve to be teasing her after having disappeared. She pulls back and slugs him in the cheek, too caught up in her emotions to think that might be a bad move. Razputin is sent tumbling on to the forest floor, landing flat on his back with his limbs sprawled out.

"How can you even joke about - Raz? Raz!" Lili cries out upon seeing that her boyfriend didn't just lose his balance from her punch, but he's completely out for the count. She turns to Sasha and Milla, who are still flabbergasted.

"Help!"

The two of them hop off the stage and help lift the boy up. It turns out Lili’s hit had knocked the last of his energy out of him, and he had passed out. Raz is taken to the lounge in the cabin and patched up by Milla while Sasha is left to corral the kids into their cabins and assure them that no, they can’t watch and yes, they should be going back to their cabins. It talks the boy almost half an hour to open his eyes again.

“Ghhnh... huh?...”

“Oh, Razputin! You’re awake!” Milla claps her hands together and smiles gratefully.

Lili is by his side immediately, worry in her gaze. "I'm so sorry for hitting you, Raz! I didn't know it was going to hurt you!"

“It’s fine... I don’t think I would’ve been able to stay awake any longer anyways.” He rubs his patched up cheek and sits up in the beanbag he was placed on.

Sasha returns at that moment, taking the cigarette out of his mouth when he finds that Razputin was no longer unconscious.

"I have contacted the Mother Lobe, and they are sending a jet to pick you up, Razputin. They are going to check your physical and mental condition and ask for a testimony of your kidnapping."

“Testimony?...” Raz stares blankly at Sasha for a few seconds before gasping in realization. He jumps to his feet.

“We can’t wait for the jet to come! I got kidnapped by this witch that could shrink people, and she was working with this rich snob who had an entire town of tiny people trapped in a big glass dome, but whenever people didn’t do what he wanted she let her use them as living toys and she’d break their bodies!!”

Lili's jaw drops in shock, and Sasha pales even more than he is naturally. The senior agent clears his throat awkwardly as he tries to find the best response to Raz' words.

"Well, ah, it will arrive in less than an hour, and we can fly to wherever you were taken with more agents as reinforcements. Better to be prepared instead of rushing in blindly. I'm sorry, Razputin, but I assure you we will do everything in our power to save those people."

Milla nods. “It’s best if we take our time darling. We can’t risk another situation like this.”

Razputin’s face falls. “But they’re all probably in danger because I escaped. We have to go as soon as possible!”

"Yeah!" Lili echoes, ready to back him up. "We can't just leave them trapped like that!"

Sasha shakes his head. "I'm sorry children, but we don't have our own way to get there quickly right now. This is the fastest option."

Raz frowns and kicks the ground. His newly made companions back at the mansion were all in incredible trouble just because of him, and he promised he would get them all out of there. What if he comes back to find they’re all in harm’s way, or even worse? He gulps. Less than an hour was all they had to wait. He stumbles back to the bean bag and sits down. Despite his eagerness, Razputin is still incredibly weak from before.

"You shouldn't strain yourself. We are still unsure of how much you need to recover from." Sasha cautions, seeing how frustrated Raz is but happy that he's sitting down again at least.

“I’ll be fine. I already slept a little when Lili punched me-“

His stomach growls and Raz brings a hand to his gut. It had taken him over 24 hours to reach camp from the mansion, via means of walking and getting rides from strangers. There wasn’t much access to food during that time.

“... I could use something to eat though.”

"I'll let Chef Cruller get something ready immediately." Sasha takes his leave downstairs.

Lili rubs her arm. "I'm really sorry about hitting you. I was just really scared and happy and you made a stupid joke. Sorry, Raz."

“It’s fine Lili. I know you wouldn’t hurt me on purpose. Unless I did something really stupid.” He gives a high-pitched giggle and watches as Lili takes a seat on a bean bag next to his.

“You’re going to help with freeing all the other shrunken people, right?”

She relaxes a bit with his forgiveness. "You bet I am! That sounds awful, shrinking a whole town like that. What was it like?"

“It was... weird. Everyone there was really different. But I met some nice people, and made a new friend. His name is Wally.” 

Raz smiles a bit before his mood is quickly extinguished again. Was Wallace alright? He, Sharon, and Bella were all nice to him during his 2 day period at the dome, so they were probably at a greater risk of facing Charles’ wrath.

Lili notices the change in his mood and tries to get his mind off things. "Wally, huh? That's pretty cool. Did the rich snob guy just shrink a random town and think no one would notice?"

“No, it was more like...” Raz spends the entirety of their wait for the jet explaining to the others what the condition of the tiny village was like, only pausing to eat the burger provided by Chef Cruller. It’s enough to make him a little more lively and ready to go when the jet finally arrives. The first one out of the jet to greet Raz is its pilot - Coach Oleander. He comes levitating out the entrance, ready for war.

"Where is he?! Almost gave me a heart attack, disappearing like he did! Raz, you better be good and healthy, son!"

“I’m right here!” 

Raz calls out, running past the others. He’s still dirty and banged up a little bit he wasn’t passed out like before, so that was an obvious improvement.

“It’s good to see you again, Coach.”

"Glad to have you back safe from behind enemy lines, soldier." Oleander makes a gesture like he wants to hug Raz, but he coughs into his fist and puts his hands behind his back instead. "Sasha told me you have some news for us."

“Oh, yeah. I’ll explain it on the jet.”

The group of Psychonauts board the psitanium-powered jet and take off in a matter of seconds. During the flight to the location provided by Razputin, he describes the conditions Charles kept all of the shrunken villagers under. The agents are all horrified, having never heard of shrinking people being possible - much less what Charles and Petunia have apparently been doing it for. They give Raz a bit of a medical evaluation, but it doesn't last very long before they've arrived at the mansion already. Sasha eyes the quiet front gate.

"Be on your guard, everyone. There is no telling what sorts of defenses are in place."

Lili reaches over and takes Raz' hand, to reassure both him and herself. He squeezes her hand in reassurance and the group of psychic agents make their way past the gate. 

Razputin is the only one to look up at the exterior of the mansion and point out the broken window on one of the top floors.

“We’re probably going to have to go there.”

"Understood." Oleander nods, and the agents all take formation to enter the window two at a time. A few also go up to the front doors, testing the lock and acting as guards.

Once the front door is deemed save, the agents there along with the main cast enter. Not much seems to have changed since Razputin’s scuffle with the two enemy hostiles, but things have been straightened out. It’s suspiciously quiet throughout the mansion.

Lili is on high alert and stays close to Raz. 

Where is the basement everyone is being kept in? She asks mentally.

The basement is to the right, and then another right.   
He responds so that all of the agents could hear his telepathy. Some agents nod and they continue. 

The first to open the basement door is Sasha, followed immediately by Milla, and her by Raz. He’s surprised to find the place empty, aside from the large dome.

His surprise is replaced by shock when an arm wraps around his head and mouth, pulling him back.

"Don't move a muscle," a familiar voice hisses in Raz' ear as the cold barrel of a gun is shoved against his temple. "Or you won't even have time to regret it."

Lili catches Raz' sudden shock and turns around. She stares wide-eyed at the man threatening her boyfriend, then she glowers at him. But she can't move closer. Sasha and Milla are quick to turn around and gasp respectively. Charles had been hiding to the side and behind the door they opened, and was now holding Razputin as a hostage. The other agents all freeze in place on the staircase when they notice what’s going on.

"This doesn't have to get messy." The man says pleasantly. Only Raz is close enough to hear the tremor of hysteria in his voice. "I'm going to take my leave, and you will all allow me to do so. If you don't, I'll blow Razputin's head off."

Milla’s eyes widen in horror and Sasha’s lips curl downwards at the ends. Nobody makes a sound as the man slowly inches to the basement door, with Razputin practically being dragged along as he does so. However the other Psychonauts, including Coach and Lili, are still blocking the staircase.

Charles presses the gun tighter to Raz' head. "Move."

When they don't immediately do so, he lowers the gun to the boy's shoulder. "Move now, or I'll make him regret it. This won't be a fatal shot."

Lili growls, but she makes quick eye contact with Raz, wondering what to do. She doesn't want to let this monster get away, but she doesn't want to see her boyfriend hurt again.

Oleander is blank-faced and solemn.

Raz has his fingers curled around the arm holding him by his lower face. He meets Lili’s gaze and maintains eye contact with her. Naturally, he’s afraid, but it doesn’t look like he’s given up yet.

You’ve got to move Lili. I’ll be fine. They both get the message, and step aside to let Charles pass. He brings the gun back up to Raz' head and starts walking past them.

"Excellent. Don't follow me or try to hit me from behind, or your agent is dead."

As he walks, the man leans into Raz' ear so only he can hear.

"As soon as Petunia is out of the hospital, I'm going to hand you over to her for good. Did you know she once ripped the arm off of one of her toys just because he'd irritated her that day? I can't imagine the wrath that she'll bring down now. I think I'll help her with this one. You've been...such a nuisance."

He presses the gun so tight against the boy's temple, it's a miracle he hasn't started bruising yet.

Razputin screws his eyes shut, as if that might help to block out the words floating into his ears. Lili would get the others out, and Sasha and Milla would come for him, and he would be fine. It’s going to be fine. He takes one slow step after another up the stairs until he and Charles reach the top. Milla is shaking where she’s standing, but she has not moved. Sasha is clenching his fists a little too tightly.

Charles watches everyone carefully as he leaves the basement, moving slowly into the rest of the house with Raz in tow. He startles a bit when a few agents come down the upper staircase and holds the boy tight. 

"Don't come any closer!"

Everyone stops where they are and a few slowly put their hands up to signify that they weren’t going to move. Raz takes a shaky breath but maintains his composure.

Sasha doesn’t move from his spot, but communicates telepathically with Zanotto.

Lili, how well versed are you in invisibility?

Almost better than Raz. 

She understands his plan and sees her chance, disappearing from sight while Charles is distracted by the other agents. Lili keeps Sasha updated on where she's at as she creeps up as quietly as she can behind the man.

Sasha does the same and takes position in the hallway leading to the front doors. If need be he would stop the man from escaping.

Charles doesn't sense Lili coming up to him, too focused on not letting any other psychonauts get the drop on him. He moves slowly, pulling Raz with him as he starts heading towards another hallway. It's this moment that Lili springs forward, mustering up all her willpower into a powerful psychic palm into the side of his head. At the same time she summons a TK hand and yanks the gun upwards towards the ceiling.

Charles screeches and pulls the trigger, shooting the chandelier and making glass fall like deadly rain around them. But Raz' life is no longer at immediate risk. Razputin kicks off against the man in an attempt to put some distance between the two of them, but Charles’ arm lowers and holds him by the neck in a headlock he can’t free himself from.

Sasha appears and, with his near perfect aim, lands a few psi-blasts directly in Charles’ face and on his hand so he would release the gun. The man is knocked unconscious from the hits, not having any tolerance built up against psychic attacks. He slumps and his hold on Raz goes slack.

The boy quickly ducks out of his arm and springs away from him, joining Lili by her side. The other Psychonauts come down the stairs from the second floor and the others left in the basement meet in the foyer as well. 

Sasha adjusts his glasses. In his opinion, the man certainly got what he deserved.

The next 30 minutes are a blur as agents secure Charles and sweep the house for any threats or hostages. They eventually find the townspeople, stuck in simple glass jars in a locked closet on the second floor. Everyone is removed immediately and the psychonauts start looking for the glowing rings that Raz described as the cure to their unusual size. He points out the desk in the basement and the rings are retrieved. The rings are placed on the rug in the living room and all of the townsfolk and returned to their original sizes. One by one, they look around in astonishment and thank their saviors. The Putnam sisters dance and twirl around in joy, Lucas is hugging Henry incredibly tight, and Tom... He’s trying to get Abor to stop wailing about how their one paradise was now gone.

Razputin’s face lights up when three familiar figures quite literally grow in front of his eyes.

“Bella! Sharon! Wally!!”

"RAZ!" The younger boy screams, flinging himself at his friend. Sharon is right behind him, pulling Bella in for a giant group hug.

"You came back for us! You escaped and you saved us! You're my hero, Raz!" Wally cries, tears streaming down his face in pure elation.

Razputin laughs and holds the other boy, as two more pairs of arms wrap around him. Bella is crying softly, barely able to contain herself as she thanks Razputin.

“Of course I came back for you guys. I promised I’d save you, and I promised I’d make it out too!”

"You're so incredibly brave, we can't thank you enough for everything." Sharon says quietly as she holds them all close.

They hear someone clear their throat, and see Raz' psychonaut friends standing a little ways away. Most of the rest of the townsfolk are being led outside to the jet, where they can be checked over.

"They said we gotta go," Lili says, a little awkward about cutting the reunion short. "Gotta make sure you're all okay and stuff."

Razputin nods and leads his three companions to the jet. The other agents stay behind to do another sweep of the area and begin collecting evidence, and a car or two had already arrived with some specialists. The 12 newly rescued habitants and Raz & company board the jet, with it taking off.

Raz seats himself between Wally and Lili, while Sasha and the other 2 Psychonauts are seated in the front. Everyone else is sitting wherever and chatting gleefully.

"You gotta tell me what happened!" Wally bounces in his seat, clinging onto Raz' arm which he hasn't let go of since they left the mansion. "Did you make a daring escape? Did you fight and kill the witch in a crazy battle? We haven't seen her since you left."

“I didn’t kill her!” He pauses. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t kill her. When I unshrunk myself I fought against them, and Petunia accidentally shrunk Charles. Then when I jumped over the wall I fought her alone, and she lost so I threw her through the window.”

Raz chuckles as the boy tugs on his arm since he was bouncing so much. He spared a glance at Lili and smiles.

“Lili, this is Wally. I’m pretty sure I told you about him.”

"Yeah you did," she smiles back at the display, finding it very cute. "It's nice to meet you, Wally."

"Ooh, so you're the reason why - hi Lili it's nice to meet you too! - Charles got all upset and kept talking about repair costs and - "

The boy keeps chattering, ecstatic and on an emotional high right now.

Razputin does his best to explain all he can and keep Wally from falling out of his chair. It takes much longer to reach the Psychonauts headquarters, so some people have begun to get the much needed rest they deserve. Bella is asleep and resting her head on Sharon’s lap.

Eventually Wally loses his adrenaline boost and falls asleep too, still holding Raz' arm in a death grip. Lili puts her hand on her chin.

Looks like you just lost your arm forever. She sends to him, amusement clear in her mental voice.

Aw man. And it was my favorite arm too. He giggles softly. 

Raz holds his only available hand over his mouth as he yawns. I think I’m going to get some shuteye too. What about you?

I don't know, I'm not tired at all. But I totally understand why you are, after the long day you've had. She smiles at him. He's so cute when he yawns like that.

Hey! I totally heard that. It’s not cute.

He purses his lips together in mock frustration. However a smile soon pokes through, since Raz is unable to contain his joy.

Lili giggles. I know, silly. I wanted you to hear it. Get some sleep, I'll make sure you and Wally don't fall off the couch.

Alright. Raz gets comfortable, leaning on Wally, who leans on his. He gives Lili one final grateful look.

“Thanks for saving my butt out there today. You’re the best.”

"Well, I guess we're finally even now." She hums lightly. "I've got your back, Raz."

Razputin smiles and shuts his eyes. Another successful mission, completed.


End file.
